Aitor Karanka came under a lot of flak for taking off Jack Robinson in Nottingham Forest’s 3-3 draw with Norwich City, with the defender being substituted after putting his side 2-0 up in the second-half. Saidy Janko was brought on in his place.
Ten minutes later, Forest made it 3-0 through Matty Cash, but the Reds spurned their lead in the final quarter of the game. Norwich pulled a goal back in the 77th minute and scored twice in injury time to snatch a point from the jaws of defeat.
Karanka explained to Nottingham Live: “It was a disciplinary decision because I thought he was a little bit lost and, with another yellow card, we would have finished the game with 10 men. I decided to take him out of the picture and when Saidy came on, he was really good. So that was the reason why we made the change.”
Forest are enduring a poor run of form in the Championship. The Reds are currently 10th in the table with 36 points from 24 games this season, coming off the back of four winless outings. Their draw against Norwich was the 12th of the campaign, two more than any other side has managed.
Karanka’s men are three points adrift of the playoffs and have won just one of their last six league games. The defence is in disarray with Michael Dawson and Tobias Figueiredo out of action and it’s affecting results. Forest didn’t lose on Boxing Day but the draw will have felt like a defeat after being 3-0 up with only 15 minutes of normal time remaining.
Crippy Cooke’s previous article
‘Awful’, ‘Shocking’ – some fans criticise Nottingham Forest flop after costly error
