Kenny Burns believes Nottingham Forest “depend too much” on Lewis Grabban and need more players in the squad to chip in with goals. The 30-year-old has notched 14 Championship goals this season, but Forest’s next highest scorer only has six to his name – Joe Lolley. After that, it’s Joao Carvalho (3) and Matthew Cash (3) who are joint-third in the scoring charts, but Burns wants defenders to help out with goals too.
In a column for Nottingham Live, he wrote: “Nottingham Forest can’t rely on Lewis Grabban scoring all the goals. Everyone has got to chip in. Grabban has been fantastic, but I’d like to see some of the other players getting on the scoresheet more. You want your full-backs and your centre-halves to get a few. They have to score goals as well. We have been depending a little bit too much on Grabban. He can’t do it all himself and he’s not going to score every week.”
Aitor Karanka’s men are currently seventh in the Championship table with 34 points from 21 games. Forest suffered defeat to Preston North End over the weekend and dropped out of the playoff places. No side have lost fewer games than the Reds (3) while only Middlesbrough (14) and Leeds United (18) have conceded less goals (22). At the other end of the pitch, Forest have scored a modest 32 goals and Grabban has contributed 50% of them.
Grabban, Lolley, Carvalho, Cash, Daryl Murphy (2), Hilel Soudani (2), Adlene Guedioura (1) and Jack Robinson (1) have all scored league goals this season. Burns would like to see more defenders chipping in so the onus wasn’t always on attacking players.
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