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Opinion: Nottingham Forest signing should be played in natural position

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Claudio Yacob has become an important player for Nottingham Forest after signing on a free transfer in September. It took two months before he made his debut, but Yacob has remained in the first-team ever since.

The Argentine international has featured in 10 of Forest’s last 12 league games and had only been on the losing side just twice until he was moved to centre-back against Reading on Saturday.

While a natural midfielder, ex-Forest boss Aitor Karanka revealed he was considering playing Yacob as a makeshift defender during the club’s injury crisis. The decision didn’t pay off on the weekend and new manager Martin O’Neill shouldn’t follow suit either.

Yacob is an excellent ball-winner, but he doesn’t keep out every threat in the middle of the park. He provides a shield in front of the backline, but sometimes he can be beaten by an opponent, so it’s important to have another line of defence behind him.

The 31-year-old has made 25 tackles, six interceptions and 16 clearances. He does have a flaw, however, with his aerial ability. Yacob isn’t the tallest and it means he wins only a small majority of his duels (55%) which is considerably lower than a defender’s should be.

In midfield, losing a header won’t cost him as he has a defence to pick up the pieces. But when he’s at the back, losing an aerial duel can mean conceding a goal. Yacob has shown he’s at his best alongside Jack Colback in the engine room, so O’Neill should keep it that way in the future.

Crippy Cooke’s previous article

0 goals in 8 games, 1 assist since November – Forest man struggling for form

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Sports journalist who is an avid football fan, enjoys debunking transfer rumours, loves to write pieces about players out in the cold and takes a large amount of pride getting a predicted XI 100% correct.