Perhaps this was his master plan after all?
I spoke yesterday about Sabri Lamouchi’s comments surrounding defender Yohan Benalouane. In that piece I mentioned how when Benalouane comes back from his injury, it would cause a bit of a backlog amongst what is already quite a crowded line when it comes to centre-backs at the City Ground.
Given the mark that Tobias Figueiredo has made on the first team in the absence of Michael Dawson, he’s unlikely to lose his place, and once you get past those two, you’ll have Chema Rodriguez to deal with.
Lamouchi stated that “Benalouane is important for the team and important for me to have one more solution”, and although I initially believed that he meant as an option in the centre, upon further research, there might be one other way in which he can help the team.
Whilst he has played the majority of his career as a central-defender, he has also occasionally dabbled at playing at right-back, playing there 31 times throughout his career, so enough for him to be comfortable in the position and not completely out of his depth.
Now given that Forest currently have a bit of a shortage at right-back, with the injuries to the likes of Carl Jenkinson and Tendayi Darikwa, forcing Matty Cash to drop back from his natural role of winger, would it really be out of the realms of possibility to suggest that Benalouane could offer a bit of a solution to the right-back problem?
Not as a direct replacement for Cash, who has been one of the best players in the league so far this year, but instead of using him as a backup option for the centre-backs, why not use him as a backup/rotation option for him as well?
Could Benalouane offer up a solution at RB?
Yes
No
That way Benalouane gets one step closer to being able to challenge for a first-team place, and we get some peace of mind knowing that we have an option to fall back on if anything should happen to Cash.
