Nottingham Forest suffered a 2-0 defeat to Sheffield United, but Claudio Yacob came away with praise from supporters for his performance at Bramall Lane. The 31-year-old made his first appearance in over two months on Friday, but he played like a man who hadn’t been away.
Fans have long called for Yacob’s return to the starting eleven and Friday’s showing went some way to highlighting why. Against United, he had 40 touches, made 23 passes, created one chance, drew three fouls, had one successful dribble, made one tackle and made two interceptions.
Yacob has missed 11 games and still looks a class above. Absolutely mad that he got the Carvalho treatment while we were rolling out Watson, Pele and Yates instead #nffc
— Jordan (@_jw05) April 19, 2019
Considering Yacob hasn’t played for weeks, to come in and be so solid shows how class he is. Mindblowing he’s not played more #NFFC
— Jordan Thelen 🏹 (@JordanThelen) April 19, 2019
One big positive. Claudio Yacob. Excellent today. #nffc #positivity
— Liam Hill (@lhill_11) April 19, 2019
Yacob has played well, we really have missed him in the middle. #nffc
— ND (@NicholasTDoyle) April 19, 2019
https://twitter.com/NJL82/status/1119223210342518784
https://twitter.com/Proper_Pictures/status/1119222300870676480
https://twitter.com/IlkestonRed/status/1119221998998179841
Yacob has made 15 appearances in all competitions for Forest since joining on a free transfer in September. The defensive-midfielder had to wait two months before making his debut with the East Midlands outfit, and he quickly became an important player alongside Jack Colback. However, Yacob found himself mostly out of the startling eleven under Martin O’Neill and has made only one Championship appearance since January.
Over the entire campaign, the Argentine international has racked up 956 minutes of Championship football. He’s made 24 clearances, won 30 aerial duels (56%), averaged 37 passes-per-game with 83% accuracy, has blocked six shots and averages a tackle (29) or interception (8) every 26 minutes.
Yacob has been a good signing for Forest, but O’Neill clearly didn’t get the memo.
Crippy Cooke’s previous article
Martin O’Neill reveals if Nottingham Forest will appeal Yohan Benalouane’s red card
