After a long and thrilling campaign, the Premier League season is nearing its end.
The champions have been crowned, and the three teams relegated to the EFL Championship have been decided.
But the excitement of the English Premier League is not over yet.
The race for the top four is still on—like a high-stakes game of musical chairs—as four more teams battle to join champions Liverpool in next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Only seven points separate second-place Arsenal and seventh-place Aston Villa!
With just three matchdays left, the battle for European spots is heating up most dramatically.
Monday’s clash between Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest was a pivotal moment in this heated race.
Forest dropped two crucial points, leaving them sixth in the Premier League table with 61 points—just two behind Chelsea, who now sit fifth with 63 points and hold the final Champions League qualification spot.
It was a frustrating night at Selhurst Park for Nuno Espírito Santo, especially in attack, as they mustered just 0.82 xG.
They just scored a goal by coincidence from the second wave of a corner, which confirms the problem.
Some believe that defending is just about basic principles—man-to-man marking, zonal marking, and so on.
However, the reality is far more nuanced.
A coach must prepare players by answering key tactical questions, like:
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If my assigned opponent drifts into a certain area, do I follow him or hold my position?
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Do I track his run until a teammate takes over? If so, at what point?
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How does this coordination work seamlessly within the team’s defensive structure?
These details transform simple theory into an organised, fluid defensive system.
In this tactical analysis, we’ll examine the Oliver Glasner defensive tactics—specifically, their mid- and low-block strategies—used to neutralise Nottingham Forest.
Crystal Palace Vs Nottingham Forest Lineups
Crystal Palace used the 5-4-1 formation.
GK: Dean Henderson
RWB: Daniel Muñoz, RCB: Chris Richards, CB: Maxence Lacroix, LCB: Marc Guéhi and LWB: Tyrick Mitchell
RW: Ismaïla Sarr, RCM: Adam Wharton, LCM: Daichi Kamada and LW: Eberechi Eze
CF: Jean-Philippe Mateta
Nottingham Forest used a 4-2-3-1 formation.
GK: Matz Sels
RB: Ola Aina, RCB: Nikola Milenković, LCB: Murillo and LB: Neco Williams
RCM: Ibrahim Sangaré and LCM: Elliot Anderson
RW: Nicolás Domínguez, CAM: Morgan Gibbs-White and LW: Anthony Elanga
CF: Chris Wood
Crystal Palace Defensive Tactics Vs Nottingham Forest
In the beginning, Crystal Palace’s defensive mid- and low-block follows these general key principles:
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Closing depth forcing attacks to the flanks
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Preparing for defending wing rotations
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Timing of defensive handoffs
- Communication is a key
Crystal Palace always wanted to maintain a 5-4-1 formation in mid- and low-blocks.
Still, the first question appearing in the photo below is what their right central midfielder, Adam Wharton, does when Nottingham’s left central midfielder, Elliot Anderson, drops into the left-back position while that full-back pushes high.
As shown below, the Wharton starts to press normally in the beginning, while right centre-back Chris Richards pushes up to press the CAM, Morgan Gibbs-White, who prefers to exploit these gaps, like the one opening up behind Wharton.
However, they don’t prefer this shape and don’t want to press so high, so as we will see, Wharton will drop again after the pass to the centre-back.
As shown below, they don’t mind dropping deep, leaving Anderson out of their block (green arrow).
While Forest left-back Williams inverts (red arrow), Palace are comfortable dropping into a low block.
In the low block, they can still effectively deal with every wing rotation from Nottingham Forest, so we will demonstrate how they were prepared regardless of the shape of wing rotation that Nuno Espírito Santo’s side employs.
Here, Anderson once again drifts wide.
In the beginning, you can note that Wharton is still in his position, not jumping so early to prevent Gibbs-White from exploiting space behind him.
Right-winger Sarr starts pressing the wide Anderson—ready to press the left-back, too, with a curved run—while wing-back Muñoz is prepared to jump to Anderson at the same time.
Right centre-back Richards covers behind.
At the same time, centre-forward Mateta stays tight to Sangaré centrally, who usually acts as a six, while Anderson acts as an eight.
It is all clear in the photo below, in which you can see how Gibbs-White finds it difficult to receive the ball, whether dropping to receive or receiving behind the midfield line, because Wharton is well-positioned, filling the space rather than jumping forward.
The following scenario is when Gibbs-White decides to drift wide to receive outside the four-player midfield line while the left winger (out of the shot) stretches the width to fix Crystal Palace’s right wing-back.
As shown below, the right winger points to the right centre-back to jump to press Gibbs-White (green), who drifts wide, while the two midfielders don’t leave their positions.
However, the question is, at what point will the right centre-back follow him?
The answer is shown below.
When Gibbs-White drops more out of the block, the right centre-back will leave him, handing him off to the right winger, who is ready now to press him while the right central midfielder shifts more inside to cover.
This leads to this well-organised shape below, which is difficult to crack.
Nottingham Forest tried so many wing rotations trying to break this low block, but Crystal Palace were ready in most cases.
The next scenario involves Gibbs-White drifts being so wide near the line, while the left winger cuts inside, as shown below.
They are still fixed in their positions, but communication is key, so the right wing-back presses Gibbs-White, while the right winger starts deep as usual to force a back pass, and then presses the left-back.
At the same time, the right central midfielder points out to the right centre-back to jump with the cutting left winger.
The summit of their defensive ability in this match appears in this scene, and we are still in the same case.
As shown below, Gibbs-White suddenly decides to cut inside, trying to exploit the gap behind the right midfielder.
When the ball is passed back, the right midfielder is expected to jump forward slightly or even drag the right wing-back with him, making him vacate his space.
However, Crystal Palace’s players communicate easily to deal with this switch, so the right centre-back follows Gibbs-White while the right wing-back takes responsibility for the left winger.
Therefore, you can find out that they are still in the same shape in wing rotations, as shown below.
Nottingham Forest Tactics In-Possession
Certainly, Nottingham Forest had their trials to get through this well-organised block implemented by Crystal Palace.
The first trial aimed to drag Crystal Palace into a mid-press (not a low one) to send long through balls behind them, but how did they attempt to do that?
In the beginning, we should say that they couldn’t break this mid-block either, but tried to drag the defenders forward and send through balls against their direction of movement.
Let’s clarify that.
As shown below, when they switch the direction of play, the far winger (Eberechi Eze) jumps to press the right centre-back because the striker was with the six and will jump to the near centre-back.
The difference is that the midfielder drops to the right side this time to receive the pass (blue arrow) while the right winger stands instead of him near the kick-off point, leaving the right winger position to Morgan Gibbs-White.
Crystal Palace, as usual, don’t care about these different movements, so they keep using the 5-4-1 mid-block.
Eze presses the dropping midfielder while the left wing-back jumps to press Nottingham Forest’s right-back and the left centre-back jumps with Morgan Gibbs-White, as shown below.
The problem is that they are further from their goal, so Morgan Gibbs-White drops to drag the left centre-back more and more and then turns around quickly to receive behind the line.
In the second half, Crystal Palace didn’t move much, preferring to stay in the low block rather than the midfield block, which made Nottingham Forest’s task more difficult.
However, they tried to implement an additional idea in the second half.
As shown below, Nottingham Forest push the left-back forward to be in the last line, too, which fixes Crystal Palace’s right wing-back and right centre-back.
It isn’t a problem for Crystal Palace, whose right winger starts narrow, as usual, and is ready to press the wide left central midfielder.
However, Nottingham Forest’s idea is to overload this side, dragging two of the five backs while the striker stands between the left centre-back and the middle one.
This creates a gap that could be exploited by the distant winger who suddenly pops up there.
It was difficult to get the ball all the way over to this far winger in this traffic, so despite being decent, it wasn’t a clear, successful idea.
Conclusion
Our analysis confirms Crystal Palace’s defensive mastery in this matchup.
Palace’s disciplined mid/low-block hybrid limited Forest to just 0.82 xG.
On the other hand, Nottingham Forest must start looking for attacking solutions if future opponents adopt this same defensive approach.
To keep their Champions League dreams alive, they’ll need to crack these tactical blocks before the season’s final decisive matches
