Nottingham Forest Fans Express Frustration After Carabao Cup Exit
Nottingham Forest slipped out of the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night – and their own fans sounded even more bruised than the result suggested.
Leeds United’s win at the City Ground was one thing. The reaction from the stands was another entirely.
Forest frustration boils over
The contrast with the weekend was the first thing supporters latched onto. Ian did not sugar-coat it: “A much worse performance than Saturday's,” he said, adding he is unconvinced new signing Liam Delap will be the answer up front. For him, this isn’t about fine-tuning. “Not pretty to watch, no identity, lack of ideas, feels like a rebuild is needed rather than tweaking.”
That theme ran through much of the Forest feedback. Graham saw nothing to cling to from the tie. “Nothing positive to come from last night, that was plainly obvious,” he wrote, before listing senior names he feels are falling short. In his eyes, Chris Wood, Ousmane Diomande, Dan Ndoye, Xaver Schlager and James McAtee “are not good enough”, and Oliver Glasner’s approach simply doesn’t fit what he has at his disposal. Forest, he argued, were “too narrow and no bite up front”.
The anger wasn’t just about individuals. It was about patterns. Or the lack of them.
David painted a bleak picture of a team going nowhere with the ball. “The smiles have gone,” he said, before turning on the repeated recycling in defence. The sequence he described will be familiar to anyone who watched: passes rolled back, then back again, until Matz Sels was forced to launch it long towards an isolated striker. “Our lone striker is outnumbered and no one else is there to fight for the second ball,” he complained. “Simply not good enough.”
Andrew went even further, calling it “the worst Forest performance in over a year”. His verdict on the players was cutting: “Clueless… with little idea of what the playing plan should be.”
From identity to intensity, Forest fans see gaps everywhere. And they are no longer prepared to hide them behind talk of early-season rust.
Leeds sense something stirring
On the away side, the mood could hardly be more different. Leeds fans left the same stadium talking not about crisis, but potential.
Bryan leaned straight into the old cliché and made it sound fresh. “The sleeping giant is starting to wake up,” he insisted. He feels Leeds never get “enough credit from the pundits or press”, and that suits him fine. In his eyes, this is a team “creeping under the radar” and ready to shock the Premier League. He believes they will be “classed as one of the strongest in defence” in the top flight and, with another striker through the door, has a clear warning: “Watch out top six, one of you will be losing your place.”
That optimism came with a caveat from others, focused higher up the pitch. Peter saw huge promise but also a familiar wastefulness. “This Leeds side could be really good with just a couple of quality additions in the forward areas as they are so wasteful,” he said. Dan James, in particular, caught his eye. According to Peter, the winger “created so much” but his team-mates “didn't anticipate his crosses”.
Ali tried to steady the mood, even after a composed display. For him, the performance at Forest was “solid”, but no reason to get carried away. The squad, he argued, is still light “in a number of areas (striker, left-back, winger, goalkeeper and attacking midfield)” and those positions must be reinforced “to be productive over a long season”.
So while Leeds fans can feel the excitement building, there’s a clear understanding of what still needs to be done.
Forest, by contrast, are wrestling with something more fundamental. Is this just an ugly cup night in August, or the early sign that a “rebuild” – as their own supporters are now calling for – can no longer be delayed?
