Nottingham Forest are close to securing the signing of creative midfielder James McAtee, who would ideally occupy a similar role as Morgan Gibbs-White.
In fact, when Gibbs-White was looking likely to move to Tottenham, McAtee looked a likely option to replace the departing Forest star.
Amid that saga, Nottingham Forest News revealed that McAtee was open to moving to Forest, an interest that has clearly remained weeks later as the Reds now edge closer to completing a deal for the Manchester City man.
Even with Gibbs-White remaining at Forest, Nuno Espírito Santo can still unleash both of his English creative sparks in the same starting XI.
How James McAtee and Morgan Gibbs-White can play together
In Nuno’s 4-2-3-1 system that guided Forest back into European football for the first time in 30 years, it’s clear that both McAtee and Gibbs-White would be most comfortable in the central attacking midfield spot.
For McAtee, though, he’s not limited to that role alone, as he has experience playing in a wider role that could see the pair link up to devastating effect.
| Position | Appearances | Goals | Assists |
| Right midfield | 17 | 7 | 3 |
Both on loan at Sheffield United and back at City, McAtee has regularly featured on the right rather than centrally, scoring a respectable seven goals in the process.
He wouldn’t be your traditional winger in the mould of Dan Ndoye, but as a way to ensure the creative talent of the Englishman is on the pitch, a starting position out wide isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
McAtee on the right with Gibbs-White centrally could also help Espírito Santo finally make progress with a planned tactical tweak, one that looked not to be working in pre-season.
McAtee and Gibbs-White could help solve a tactical worry for Forest
Reports in pre-season suggested that Espírito Santo has been trying different tactical set-ups to avoid any chance of the Reds becoming too one-dimensional.
According to a piece in The Telegraph, possession is a large part of his plans to freshen up Forest, with the report saying:
“Telegraph Sport understands the coach wants his reshaped team to control more of the ball, to dominate matches and be more flexible.”
The technical ability of McAtee alone would help Forest keep possession, but combined with Gibbs-White, Nuno’s side should be able to work the ball more patiently in attack without becoming too pedestrian in their passes.
It remains to be seen how exactly the Forest manager works McAtee into his starting line-up, but wherever he plays looks to be of benefit to his tactical plans.
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