The Premier League is back, and so are Nottingham Forest as the Reds prepare to host Leeds United in their opening Premier League game of the new season.

When Leeds visit the City Ground on Saturday, it will represent new Forest head coach Oliver Glasner's first competitive game at the helm.

The Austrian's arrival has carried an overwhelming sense of excitement, and the start of competitive fixtures has only seen this increase.

Saturday offers an excellent opportunity for Forest to keep that positive energy flowing on home soil, with Glasner's side the favourites to take three points.

Compared to the chaos of last season, Forest's injury list makes for relatively brisk reading ahead of Leeds' visit.

But there are two notable absences that Glasner will need to contend with, after he confirmed that both Ryan Yates and Nicolo Savona will miss the Premier League opener.

"[The injury list is] Ryan Yates and [Nicolo] Savona," he revealed on Thursday. "These two players won't make the match-day squad."

While the club captain, Yates, is only thought to be dealing with a relatively minor issue, but Savona has suffered an unfortunate setback in his recovery from a serious knee injury.

The Italian has not featured for Forest since January, and Glasner has offered an update, revealing that concerns over his workload have seen him take a backwards step in his recovery.

"To be honest, we thought he should be further along than he is now," Glasner admitted, "He had a minor setback to be honest, his knee reacted on the load more than we wanted the knee to react.

"So we had to make a step back, so now he's working in the gym again, preparing his knee to go back on the grass. It will take a couple of weeks, I guess."

Matz Sels; Ousmane Diomande, Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo; Ola Aina, James McAtee, Ibrahim Sangare, Neco Williams; Dan Ndoye, Morgan Gibbs-White; Igor Jesus

Leeds offered a real mixed bag last season, with a terrible start saved by a frankly miraculous run in which they lost just one of their final nine Premier League games.

A similar run just before Christmas saw Leeds twice draw with Liverpool, as well as beating Chelsea 3-1 at Elland Road, results which are thought to have saved Daniel Farke his job.

Roundtable's Leeds United expert, Dylan Whitbread, offered an insight into what Forest fans should expect to face this weekend.

"I think you should expect a high-pressing and high-intensity game," he revealed. "Leeds like to move the ball quickly and get the ball forward to Dominic Calvert-Lewin as quick as they can, so he can hold it up and bring others into play.

"That’s what brought them success last season, however, with the introduction of James Trafford and Tarik Muharemovic, I think you will see Leeds playing out from the back a lot more. It will likely be a performance which is more familiar with a Farke system.

"I think with Harry Wilson too, we’ve seen a lot of the play is going through him, so if you leave him free you could potentially see him dominate and dictate the game for Leeds in the attack.

"But, if you keep him quiet, you are shutting off one of, if not the, strongest of our attacking outlets. I do think whatever system Forest play Leeds will go with a 3-4-3 system as that’s what they’ve practised throughout preseason."

Leeds boast a strong defence, and will match Forest's three-at-the-back system, but that does not mean that they cannot be exploited.

Dylan continued to reveal the key area where Forest can get at the visitors, and it looks set to be Dan Ndoye who is tasked with doing so.

"I think the weakest area of our team right now is LB/LWB," he conceded. "Gabriel Gudmundsson is out injured currently and he was my signing of the season last year.

"Similarly to the goalkeeping position, LB is a position we have struggled to nail down for years and Gabriel came in and looked great going forward and defensively.

"He will be a really big miss and as good as James Justin is, the left-hand side is weakened massively when Gabriel is out."

James Trafford; Joe Rodon, Tarik Muharemovic, Jaka Bijol; Jayden Bogle, Anton Stach, Ethan Ampadu, James Justin; Anton Stach, Brenden Aaronson; Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Due to broadcasting laws, the game will not be televised live in the United Kingdom.

But you can stay up to date at Roundtable, because we will be delivering the latest updates as they happen, before, during and after the game. 

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