Nottm Forest vs Leicester Prediction

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Nottm Forest vs Leicester Prediction Match Overview

As part of this weekend’s Premier League predictions, following a brief interlude for the cup competitions, 17th placed Nottm Forest host 13th placed Leicester. Forest are in the midst of something of an upturn in league form, as evidenced by a haul of eight points from their last five Premier League outings. It’s fair to say that Cooper’s men have needed time to gel following a radical overhaul of their playing squad as they seek to retain their Premier League status and avoid becoming yet another ‘yo-yo’ club in the English football pyramid. If we look at the last 10 games, we can see that Forest have settled into Premier League life now, with 13 points from those 10 matches while suffering just three defeats. Forest are on an upward trajectory at the halfway point of the season, coming in off their first away win of the campaign – a 1-0 victory over fellow strugglers Southampton. They will be looking to build upon a run of home form that has seen them go seven matches unbeaten in all competitions.

The visitors for their part find themselves sliding down the table having lost their last three Premier League matches. It can be argued that the World Cup came at a bad time for Leicester, as they were in excellent form winning five out of six matches in all competitions prior to the break. In fact, Leicester conceded just one goal in seven matches during this period, which was against Manchester City, with five of those results ending in victories-to-nil; 2-0 against Leeds, 4-0 against Wolves, 2-0 against Everton, 3-0 against Newport in the League Cup and 2-0 against West Ham. Leicester had seemingly put their poor start to the season behind them, but a series of injuries and the disruption of the World Cup has eradicated their momentum and now Leicester sit two points above the drop zone having played one game shy of half a season.

Nottm Forest vs Leicester Team News

Injuries and Suspensions

Nottm Forest:

Might Not Play: Awoniyi, Williams

Will Not Play: Biancone, Boly, Kouyate, Lingard, Niakhate, Richards

Leicester:

Might Not Play: Praet

Will Not Play: Bertrand, Evans, Justin, Maddison, Pereira, Dewsbury-Hall, Soumare

Possible Lineups

Nottm Forest (4-3-3): Henderson; Lodi, Worrall, McKenna, Aurier; Mangala, Freuler, Yates; Gibbs-White, Johnson, Awoniyi

Leicester (4-3-3): Ward; Thomas, Faes, Amartey, Castagne; Mendy, Ndidi, Tielemans; Barnes, Perez, Vardy

Nottm Forest vs Leicester Prediction Analysis

Home Advantage for Forest

Perhaps this shouldn’t seem like much of a talking point – after all, most teams benefit from home advantage. However, the constrast between Forest’s home and away performances has been stark. Although they did manage a 1-0 win against fellow strugglers Southampton in their last Premier League match, Forest have scored two away goals in nine matches and conceded a whopping 22 goals. At home, however, it’s something of a different story. Forest are both more competent in front of goal, with 11 in 9, and more difficult to break down, with 12 goals conceded. Their recent impressive run of home form has seen them draw 1-1 with Aston Villa, defeat Liverpool 1-0, draw 2-2 with Brentford, beat Crystal Palace 1-0 and draw 1-1 with Chelsea. Every one of these sides is placed 12th or above in the league table, and as such we can say with confidence that so far this season, home advantage is a very real phenomenon for them.

This likely means we can expect more from Forest both in and out of possession. Whereas their high energy pressing game was largely absent against the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal away from home, at the City Ground they have made life miserable for their more illustrious opponents and have deserved their results as opposed to their run being one of luck and variance. Indeed, they equalled Liverpool’s number of shots and target and were superior to Chelsea in that particular statistic when they visited. So what does this mean for Leicester? Ordinarily, perhaps Leicester would be targeting this game as a must-win fixture but they can’t fall into the trap of playing a high line and committing too many men forward. This was the primary reason that the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool have come unstuck at the City Ground of late, and so Leicester must play a more patient game.

Leicester’s Urge to Attack Away From Home

Leicester’s away matches have been hugely entertaining this season. 38 goals in 9 games has ensured that the paying public has certainly had value for money, but what does this mean for Leicester’s likely approach here? Forest have shown that when teams overcommit against them at the City Ground that they can and will punish them, and Rodgers will certainly be keen to halt their recent slide here. We could see Leicester adopt a more defensive posture than you might normally associate them with, in an effort to strangle the game by engaging in slow buildup play and showing caution in committing the likes of Castagne and Thomas into forward areas. It would seem to be the obvious thing to suggest that the goal-fests will continue, and that this game will be an end-to-end affair with chances abound. However, Leicester have a tough run of fixtures following this match – Brighton, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Man Utd and Arsenal all await them following this bottom-half clash, and they’ll be keen not to throw this one away so we expect a more controlled performance from them.

Beat the Bookmaker Nottm Forest vs Leicester Prediction

This will be a game of fine margins, with Forest in good form particularly at home, and Leicester looking to ensure that they come away with a positive result before embarking upon a particularly difficult run of fixtures. As such, we don’t expect Leicester to be quite as open as they ordinarily would, although we still think that a clean sheet is unlikely for them here. Forest will be confident that they can add another match to their impressive unbeaten run, but their game is predicated upon the openness of their opponents, as evidenced by their impressive scalps at home, and we feel that Leicester will change their approach here to gain a hard-earned point.

Nottm Forest 1-1 Leicester

Beat the Bookmaker Nottm Forest vs Leicester Prediction – Draw Odds: