I Know Bugger All About Xaver Schlager So, as a Forest Fan, I’ve Put In Some Personal Research

An Amateur Analysis of Glasner's First Signing

I admitted on X yesterday that I know very little of our new man through the door at the City Ground, Xaver Schlager, so it felt necessary for me to make a half-arsed attempt at looking into what he can bring us.

Won’t pretend for a second that I know too much about him but hey, rejecting elite European clubs for us feels like a good sign https://t.co/Yshrlxd2Me

— Louis Wheeldon (@LouisWheeldonNS) July 15, 2026

It's a signing to mark down as notable in any regard, being the first under the hugely-anticipated Oliver Glasner era in the East Midlands, and he is apparently a player he has been a big fan of for quite some time.

There is also the added caveat of us apparently having beaten some of Europe's big boys to his signature, as well as RB Leipzig who tried (and failed) to tie the Austrian down to a new deal in the Bundesliga, with us stealing in and getting him in on a free.

A notable gap and a mammoth wad of cash has been left in the midfield department following the British record sale of Elliot Anderson to Manchester City, so some reinforcement is necessary with one of our best operators leaving for pastures new from a fairly thinly-spread midfield department in the first place, with the likes of Nicolas Dominguez, James McAtee, Ibrahim Sangare, Ryan Yates and Morgan Gibbs-White remaining as our main options in the engine room.

So, in comes Schlager.

🚨 EXCL: Nottingham Forest to sign Xaver Schlager as free agent. 28yo Austria midfielder rejected RB Leipzig renewal & elite European clubs for #NFFC. 2+1yr contract after strong WC - brings quality, leadership, experience. Medical this week @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/0jvhqiPaQz

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) July 15, 2026

I'm not sure what this article will end up looking like, in truth, but I'm going through every fans journey in figuring out who the new face in town is and making a stab at how he is going to do over here.

The Bundesliga and Premier League Divide

The main thing that sparks perhaps a small bit of panic is the differences in style that come from different divisions.

I have always felt that there is a little bit of a misconception surrounding Bundesliga arrivals, however. Players like Jadon Sancho, Jamie Gittens and Niclas Fullkrug arriving direct in England from the German top flight and not doing very well have led to a term coined as the 'Bundesliga Tax', but I do feel that the ratio of solid signings out of Germany to bad ones does lean more to the better-placed former.

Anton Stach is sensationally good for Leeds, for instance, as was Tyler Adams before he went to Bournemouth and got even better. We had Orel Mangala and Moussa Niakhate from over there as well, and both were pretty decent in the Garibaldi and Taiwo Awoniyi will always remain as a cult hero for us. Then there are the likes of Pascal Gross, Benjamin Sesko, Ryan Gravenberch and so forth. And, of course, the immortal Kevin de Bruyne.

🚨🇩🇪 This free-kick from Leeds midfielder Anton Stach (27) is QUALITY! 🤯👏 pic.twitter.com/CRqkEsgATy

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) February 21, 2026

There have absolutely been poor purchases from Germany to England, but I wouldn't say it is an overwhelmingly bad place to shop on merit. The main thing that people worry over is the vast amount of space available for players over there - space that made pacey attackers like Sancho, Omar Marmoush and even our own Arnaud Kalimuendo look like world-beaters when over there, as was the case for one Timo Werner.

But the midfield is a different story, with some of the best players in that department needing to be quick and clever in tight spaces and progressive on the ball, owing to the famously noxious pressing systems you'll find in Germany. And that's the sort of department that Schlager, upon a brief inventory, seems to work well in.

We made the mistake of bringing in a slow-planning tempo-setter in Remo Freuler in our first season back up, and a swap deal bringing us the high-energy Dominguez ended up being a very clever and valuable one. So Schlager carrying that sort of energy and ability to get out of a pickle in the middle brings encouragement.

The Numbers, Mason, What Do They Mean?

So, some good-old stats.

Schlager spent seven years in the Bundesliga over time with Wolfsburg and then Leipzig, having been a product of the Red Bull system with Salzburg in his native Austria. He's netted eight goals in all of that time, and has notched four in 55 caps for his country. So the first clue is that we haven't got a box-breaching, late-run-making player on our hands here.

And then there are the inevitable comparisons to Anderson himself...

From DataMB

God knows what most of that means and, it must be said, I despise an over-reliance on stats and numbers to define what makes a player. I much prefer yer da's eye test over whatever a calculator will say but, in the absence of that until the season starts, I'll take a guilty peak at the figures.

So, going purely from last season, he wins just as many duels (both defensive and offensive) as Anderson did, but the Englishman wins possession a lot more. So that indicates that the majority of his duelling comes with him on the ball, and he more often-than-not comes out on top. With that, I'm assuming he won't work as a six, with Ibrahim Sangare perhaps fitting that role better, but more as a forward-thinking eight given his attacking numbers don't stack up with what you would expect from a bona-fide attacking number 10. Right-o.

If I'm reading the above graph correctly, I think I can deduct one key difference between Anderson and Schlager and that is how they prefer to wriggle away from danger. You might need to bare with me here, as I have no idea if this will make sense even to me.

Why is nobody really talking about Xaver Schlager?

He’s available on a free transfer this summer and honestly, I’d have expected clubs to be all over that opportunity by now.

Yes, he had to overcome a serious injury, but he’s still managed to play 32 games this season and has… pic.twitter.com/KAyvt92nAh

— emir (@EKscouting) June 10, 2026

So both players like to pass forwards just as much as each other (as a percentage, anyway), but Anderson has a much higher number of 'progressive' passes and key passes compared to Schlager. That being said, Schlager's 'progressive carries' rank a lot higher than Anderson's. So the clue I think I'm working with here would be Anderson's preference being to get away from danger by any means, be that sideways or backwards, and immediately look forward with his passing (which we all saw last season anyway) whereas Schlager's is to barrel forward out of danger by himself before laying off any passing support.

In that case, I think I will make the assumption that we have a midfielder who can get himself out of a pickle and immediately stride forward with pace and purpose. The Bundesliga does provide a lot more of that space, and the early doubt does make me think he won't have as many chances to get straight forward by himself in the Premier League, but the energy and effort that that would require does feel like it would suit a high-energy Glasner system.

Of course the thing is with percentage stats is that it is a general on-average stat based on how much they have played, and when looking at the minutes Anderson played around 18 games-worth of minutes more than Schlager last season. So the sample size on the Austrian is a little smaller, but the numbers we do have paint a little bit of a picture before we see him kick a ball.

Right, enough numbers or else I shall make myself nauseous.

The Value of the Deal

I've been reading through the reports of people who, quite frankly, know a lot more than I do about the Bundesliga in general. To my surprise, a fair bit of what I have laid out above seems to line up with that.

Self-championing aside, something else I am happy with is the value of the deal in general - free of charge!

45 for him, 0 for schlager 🙅‍♂️

22.5 for him, 22.5 for schlager 😁 https://t.co/376yyrRmFt

— bray (@maybebrayyy) July 16, 2026

So Schlager won't likely match Anderson on quality, sure. However, he's got years of elite-level football under his belt, has tens of caps for his country, just played at a World Cup and is in his prime years. So to get £116m for one player and fill his spot, even if just by the number of midfielders we now have at all, for zip seems pretty savvy to me.

He's quick and strong - a lot of the footage I have just been watching sees him shrug off defenders with a relative ease when on the ball - and adds some experience into the middle of the park all for no cost barring wages. On top of that, he's a player Glasner wanted in the past at Crystal Palace having worked with him at Wolfsburg beforehand. So he knows him well off the bat, which can only get things off to a favourable start.

Xaver Schlager on Oliver Glasner:

“Everyone knows what we have to do: run, run. If we’re brave, we can cause any team problems. It’s disgusting to play against us.

“He likes to play football the way I imagine it. It’s about intensity, pressing high and being brave.”#NFFC pic.twitter.com/0cPcue0m7v

— Ethan Lamb (@ethanlamb01) July 15, 2026

Overall, we've got our transfer business underway now with around a month and-a-half remaining in the window. That fat chunk of change left over from selling Anderson remains un-touched, and can be re-invested in another face in midfield to give us some reinforcement (Bergvall and/or Inao Oulai have been linked names) as well as other areas of the squad in need of attention, such as the striker spot.

I'm happy with Schlager's arrival - I was anyway, even just to say we beat some big clubs to a signature, but even more so now that I know even the slightest iota about him.

We are on the lager with Xaver Schlager.