Q&APremier League return, signings and former Reds - the view from Nottingham Forest

The Reds met Forest at the City Ground last season in the quarter-finals of the Emirates FA Cup, with the visitors claiming a 1-0 victory thanks to Diogo Jota's second-half goal.

Ahead of this latest clash, we caught up with Nick Miller, staff writer at The Athletic and Forest fan, for the lowdown on Steve Cooper's side and their season so far...

Nottingham Forest are back in the top flight, so how have you found it so far?

It was all very exciting for three or four weeks before the realities of what actually playing in the Premier League would actually mean. It's obviously been very difficult for Forest to integrate the many new signings – 22 players signed, three immediately went on loan, so effectively 19 first-team squad players, which I think is probably unprecedented. From that point of view, it's not a huge surprise the season hasn't started brilliantly.

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What's the mood among the fanbase 11 games into the campaign?

Considering where Forest are in the table, the fanbase are still quite positive. They're still very much behind the manager, still slightly just getting used to the realities of the Premier League after 23 years away and getting used to all the new players that have come in. For example, when Steve Cooper signed his new contract, the reception was universally positive. While there was a lot of speculation about whether Cooper was going to go, none of that was coming from the fans – for sentimental reasons as well. The guy gave us the play-off final after 23 years, the greatest day of most Forest supporters' lives, certainly the ones that don't remember the Brian Clough days. I think everyone recognises this is an incredibly difficult situation for the manager, for the new players and for the club generally.

Steve Cooper will be known to some Liverpool supporters for his time as an Academy coach. What sort of football has he brought to Forest?

What you'll probably see on Saturday is not the type of football he would necessarily want to play. He has said this a couple of times: while the team are getting used to playing with each other, the emphasis is very much on keeping things tight in defence. He's changed formation from last season. Last season was the default 3-4-1-2 formation, which he tried again at the start of the season but for various reasons wasn't really working. In the past few weeks, he's moved to a kind of 4-5-1, 4-3-3 system with the emphasis on keeping things tight at the back. It hasn't been the most attractive football to watch but they've only conceded two goals in the last three games – one of which was a penalty. In that respect, it's an improvement on before. Ideally, he'd want to play much more dynamically, with a lot of emphasis on attacking down the flanks, fast counter-attacks.

There's some more familiar faces in the squad with Neco Williams and Taiwo Awoniyi – how have they been getting on since arriving in the summer?

Williams has done really well. I think he'll be playing at left-back because none of Forest's left-backs are going to be fit. He's been pretty impressive so far – very good going forward, good cross on him. Certainly for the first five or six games, of the new signings I thought he was arguably the most impressive. Awoniyi's found it a little bit more difficult. Even though he did very well in the Bundesliga, you can tell he's taking a little bit more time to get used to the pace of the Premier League. But he's scored a couple of goals and is a good physical presence up front.

Who's been Forest's standout player so far this season?

The standout player probably won't be playing in Lewis O'Brien. He came in from Huddersfield Town and was one of the more low-key signings. He's a fairly active box-to-box midfielder but he's currently injured. One player who has been very impressive, certainly in the last few games, has been Remo Freuler, who came in from Atalanta. He'll probably play at the base of midfield and try, as much as Forest can, to dictate the pace of the game. Every now and then he comes up with this absurd pass from deep in midfield to out wide – one of those passes where you think, 'How has he even seen that pass is on, never mind play it?' Dean Henderson has been good in goal, even though Forest have conceded quite a few.

What are you expecting from the game and what's your score prediction?

I think, realistically, it'll be a Liverpool win – I'd say 3-0. But performances have been gradually improving for Forest, so the optimistic side hopes for a draw.