Nottingham Forest are in for a hectic weekend of build-up to the West Ham clash, with the Europa League draw and Thomas Tuchel’s England squad to be announced.
Forest will learn their opponents for the Europa League’s league phase at lunchtime on Friday, which will coincide with Tuchel’s England announcement for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Morgan Gibbs-White has featured for Tuchel’s England already, but there have naturally been calls to see the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Elliot Anderson called up too.
Following Anderson’s strong showing at the U21 Euros with England, it looks as if he is set to be rewarded with a call-up to the senior squad, something that has been a long time coming in the minds of those at the City Ground.
Elliot Anderson earns call-up to Thomas Tuchel’s England squad
After a tremendous start to the 25/26 season, Ben Foster still had doubts about Anderson’s England hopes as he hadn’t yet added goals to his game, but Tuchel is set to ignore these doubts in Friday’s squad announcement.
According to The Athletic: “Nottingham Forest midfielder Elliot Anderson is set to receive his first senior England call-up for September’s World Cup qualifiers.
“Anderson, 22, was an important part of England’s Under-21 European Championship-winning side this summer and Thomas Tuchel watched him in person during Forest’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace on Sunday.”
The announcement can’t come soon enough for those at Forest, with Paul Taylor adding in the same piece: “There are numerous senior figures at Nottingham Forest, including the manager, who believe Elliot Anderson and Morgan Gibbs-White have the quality and potential to become key men for England.
“Those who see the duo work on the training ground every day, believe that Thomas Tuchel should at least be giving thought to the notion of building his midfield around them, in years to come.”
Some will argue that the likes of Nuno Espírito Santo would be biased in these conversations, but it’s clear to see that Anderson has a chance to assert himself in Tuchel’s thinking in September.
Elliot Anderson has two games to secure his England future
The three lions will go into September’s qualifiers on the back of a 3-1 defeat against Senegal in a June friendly that happened to be played at the City Ground.
No position is safe in Tuchel’s squad, then, giving Anderson the perfect chance to make himself undroppable in the eyes of the German coach.
Heading into the Andorra and Serbia games, Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer are injured, while Conor Gallagher has only played an hour of football for Atletico Madrid this season.
Therefore, Anderson should be given an opportunity, being one of the few midfielders in the squad who is a fit and crucial performer for his club.
It remains to be seen how Tuchel approaches the task of involving Anderson, but Forest fans will know that if he gets his chance, it’ll be hard to drop him afterwards.
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