Head coach Ange Postecoglou is certain talisman Morgan Gibbs-White will soon rediscover his top form for Nottingham Forest.
The England international is yet to really get going this term – albeit he is not the only Reds player to suffer from something of a slow start to the campaign. The task now falls to Postecoglou to get one of his most important players back to his best.
Gibbs-White’s dip comes on the back of a summer transfer saga where he was the subject of interest from Tottenham Hotspur. At one stage the 25-year-old was on the verge of a move to Postecoglou’s former club, only for a surprise twist in the tale to emerge when he penned a new Forest contract.
“He’s not the only one in that boat,” Postecoglou said of Gibbs-White’s stuttering form ahead of today’s clash with Burnley at Turf Moor (3pm kick-off). “It precedes me that it hasn’t been a smooth start to the season for a lot of the players.
“I haven’t chatted to Morgan individually yet. I’m really keen to do certain things so we can get our season up and running. But I know he’s very, very determined to do well for the club and get his form back to where it needs to be.
“It’s been a little bit disruptive; it’s great they go away with England, fantastic, but he didn’t play much those two weeks and then he comes back again and plays.
“They’re the challenges. Maybe some of it is how unsettled maybe he was in the off-season.
“All players go through these things; it’s how you overcome them. I’m sure he’s learned a lot in these recent times.
“Just watching him train, I know he’s really keen. He was keen to get out there against Swansea on Wednesday night and he’s really keen to get his season up and running. Burnley is a great chance to do that.”
Like Gibbs-White, Postecoglou is well versed in being in the spotlight. The newly-appointed Reds boss feels he has had to cope with negativity ever since he ‘came to the Premier League’.
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Asked why he thought that was the case, he replied: “No idea. I think I’m likeable. But it’s a curious study in human nature as to why that is the case.
“I came to the Premier League from Scotland (after being in charge at Celtic) and I get that there’s not a great deal of respect given to the game up there. But my first year at Tottenham I went to a club that had finished eighth, similar to here. They had lost their greatest ever player (Harry Kane) who’s still pretty much the best striker in the world, and I got them into fifth, playing my style of football to an extreme.
“Fifth would have got us Champions League any other year. You watch the Champions League this week and teams that finished fifth are heralded. But unfortunately, that first year I had somehow doesn’t exist.
“All that exists was the fact we finished in a poor position last year and that shows my football ‘doesn’t work’, so… I don’t know. But from my point of view, does it keep me up at night? No, I’m pretty comfortable.
“For me, the most important people are the people I work with and work for, the fans I represent at whatever club I’ve been to. That’s what I want to do here – hopefully make an impact that means the most important people, the fans, feel like it was a good thing that I walked through the door.”
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