It’s very rare I disagree with what Sabri Lamouchi is doing, but I find myself doing so here.
Following an injury to Rafa Mir that is set to keep him out for a few weeks, Forest find themselves with just one senior centre-forward available, Lewis Grabban. That has left Sabri Lamouchi searching the free-agent market to find a suitable replacement if things get worse.
Speaking during his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Swansea City, Lamouchi spoke about how hard it is to try and sign free agents, both during and after the transfer window:
“It is difficult. It was difficult to find one before and it’s more difficult to find one now. If the player is free, there is some reason for that. If you take someone now, they need to add value to the group.”
He then spoke about how he isn’t worried yet about a possible injury to his lone remaining centre-forward Grabban:
“Hopefully it doesn’t happen, but I would find a solution. I am positive”
However, I think that Lamouchi is being incredibly untrustworthy when it comes to the setup of the squad as it stands. Whilst he may be down to one out-and-out centre-forward in the first team, I think for him to be essentially relying on the free-agent market should anything happen to first-team players like and Rafa Mir, to me shows a lack of faith in the club.
I’ve spoken before about how a young player like Brennan Johnson should be given a few more minutes in the first team and an injury to someone like Grabban would be the perfect opportunity to give them to him. Now obviously whilst you don’t want your first-team players to suffer from injuries, I don’t think it would be a disaster to have to rely on academy players to step up in case of an injury, surely that’s what they’re there for?
What about you? Do you think that Forest need to be dipping into the free-agent market for reinforcements? Or do you think that the club already has sufficient backup in the academy and on the bench already?
