4.2 tackles per game: Why one man’s return should signal change at the City Ground – Opinion

So, that’s the international break more or less over.

Now time to settle on club matters once again, and there could be a few changes afoot now that players are coming back from injury. None more so could there be a change than in defensive midfield, as the club prepares to welcome back Malian Samba Sow.

The latest injury report from before the break has the 30-year-old set to make a return this weekend against Bristol City, with Sabri Lamouchi saying that he will ‘probably train with us’ during the time off.

Whilst his return, whenever that may be but hopefully sooner rather than later, will be a welcome one for Nottingham Forest given that he leads the team both in tackles and interceptions with 4.2 and 2.1 respectively (via WhoScored), his comeback means someone is going to have to drop out, and should in my mind lead to a few changes at the City Ground.

Whilst Lamouchi has operated predominantly with a 4-2-3-1 formation so far this season, with the re-emergence of Sow, it would seem weird to put him back in the line-up alongside Ben Watson as they primarily do the same job of breaking up play in front of the back four, with Watson averaging 2.5 tackles and 1.7 interceptions, placing him 4^th and 2^nd on the team respectively (again via WhoScored).

Combine this with Nottingham Forest’s need to be more attacking, as I have spoken about before, I think it’s time that Forest switch up and go for a 4-3-3 formation and leave all of the defensive work to Sow and the defenders and push more players up the field, with one midfielder holding rather than two.

If you give the likes of Ryan Yates, Tiago Silva and Joao Carvalho more license to roam forward, then hopefully it will give Forest a bit more of a cutting edge, and given how badly Forest are performing on the latest Experimental361 table when it comes to expected goals, it’s clear they need all the help going forward that they can get.

What about you? Do you think that Sow coming back will bring with it a change in formation? Or do you think that things will stay more or less as they are?