
Forest Q&A: Team news, preview ahead of FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City
April 25, 2025 at 9:30 AM EDT
On Sunday, Nottingham Forest will play in their first FA Cup semi-final since 1991, when they take on Manchester City at Wembley Stadium.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side have already enjoyed their most successful season in decades, having climbed to fourth place in the Premier League table.
The Forest boss has just faced the media ahead of the game, which will see his team go up against a City side that has reached the last two FA Cup finals, both against Manchester United, losing last year but winning in 2023.
With Neco Williams and Ryan Yates suspended, he will hope to have Ola Aina fit following his recent calf problem.
And The Athletic's Paul Taylor and Nick Miller will be here to answer all of your questions on the big game — and anything else Forest related — from around 2.30pm.
Paul Taylor and Nick Miller April 25, 2025 9:00 am EDT

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Alexander-Arnold was essentially an attacking midfielder hiding as a right-back whereas Frimpong is, well, not. When it comes to progressive passes (passes that move the ball at least 10 yards closer to the opponent's goal), Alexander-Arnold ranked 19th and was once again surrounded by a bevy of talented midfielders like Nicolò Barella and Youri Tielemans. Frimpong ranked 10th…on his team. Even Leverkusen's defensive midfielder Robert Andrich had more progressive passes than Frimpong this season. Advertisement It's at about this point where you're probably asking, 'So what does Frimpong do exactly?' The answer to this is simple: He runs, quite often and quite fast. According to PFF FC's physical metrics provided to The Athletic, Frimpong sprinted more than any other player in Germany last season. In total, the new Liverpool signee had 800 sprints (classified as runs that exceed 25 KM/hr), 15 more than the next closest player. 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The 20-year-old did lead Bournemouth in progressive passes with 159, but that number falls well short of Alexander-Arnold's 232 from last season. However, passing isn't the only way to move the ball forward — players can dribble, too. If you combine progressive passes and carries, Kerkez is much closer to Alexander-Arnold's tier of ball progression. Alexander-Arnold authored 283 progressive movements last season. Thanks to 106 progressive carries to go along with those 159 progressive passes, Kerkez was responsible for 265. If Frimpong fills his actual position and Wirtz takes over some of the playmaking in the final third, it's Kerkez's distribution from deep that replicates the last part of Alexander-Arnold's production. On the surface, fading Liverpool and looking for value in clubs like Arsenal (5/2) or Manchester City (13/5) to win the title next season would seem to be the right move. 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