Aitor Karanka delighted with one ‘important’ aspect of Nottingham Forest
Soccer Football - Championship - Nottingham Forest vs Aston Villa - The City Ground, Nottingham, Britain - January 13, 2018 Nottingham Forest manager Aitor Karanka Action Images/Alan Walter EDITORIAL USE ONLY. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or "live" services. Online in-match use limited to 75 images, no video emulation. No use in betting, games or single club/league/player publications. Please contact your account representative for further details.
Aitor Karanka says he’s delighted with Nottingham Forest’s defence of late and believes “it’s important” that the Reds can pick up clean sheets as it “builds consistency”. Forest played out a 0-0 draw with Stoke City over the weekend, stretching their unbeaten run to four games and picking up their fourth clean sheet in six outings.
The Midlands club currently sit one place and one point outside the Championship playoffs after 17 games and boast the third-best defensive record (16) in the process. Karanka chopped and changed his backline a lot earlier in the season, but he appears to have stumbled upon a back-four that he likes – Jack Robinson, Michael Dawson, Tobias Figueiredo and Tendayi Darikwa.
With Forest suffering only one defeat in their last 11 league games, they’re clearly doing something right at the back, and Karanka says the defence deserve a lot of credit. He told Nottingham Live: “It is important, particularly for the belief of the team. When you do not concede goals, you build that consistency.”
After the international break, Forest travel to the KCOM Stadium to face Hull City – a side who are currently 22nd in the table with 16 points to their name. City are in form, however, boasting two wins and a draw from their last three games so they could give Karanka’s men something to worry about on November 24.