Former Nottingham Forest defender Brian Laws says that the club have a heavy reliance on Lewis Grabban and Joe Lolley when it comes to scoring the goals required to be competitive in the Championship promotion race.
Grabban has scored 19 league goals this season for Sabri Lamouchi’s promotion hopefuls, with Lolley next in Forest’s individual scoring charts with nine to his name.
After that, Sammy Ameobi, Matty Cash, Tiago Silva, Ben Watson and Ryan Yates have all found the net three times this season, and Laws believes those returns will have to increase sooner rather than later.
Asked about the importance of Grabban and Lolley to Forest at the minute, Laws – who spent six years at Forest between 1988 and 1994 – was quoted by Nottinghamshire Live as telling BBC Radio Nottingham: “Yes, of course, they are. I don’t think you can hide away from the fact that Lolley and Grabban provide a lot of what’s going forward and what’s good about Forest.
“Where the other goals are going to come from, you scratch your head.”
Do Forest rely too much on Grabban and Lolley?Yes
No
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Assessing Forest’s other goalscoring options, and how they could add to the 54 league goals they have scored so far this season, without developing an over-reliance on Grabban and Lolley, Laws continued: “The defence don’t really contribute in terms of, the centre-halves aren’t scoring a lot of goals, midfield players aren’t chipping in with as many as they would like, so, unfortunately, it is, Lolley and Grabban who everybody will look at.
“When they’re on the park, you feel like you’ve got a chance and when they’re not, you feel where is the goal going to come from?
“Is it going to be a bit of individual creativity, or is going to be a free-kick that we’ve had in the past from Silva. Those two players, in particular, are so important to the team.”
This is definitely something that Forest ought to be worried about.
Particularly with the games coming at such a pace right now, it only takes one or two injuries to Grabban or Lolley and Forest’s promotion hopes could be in significant trouble.
You those at the club will be well aware of this issue as well, meaning it would be no surprise to see Forest target more attacking reinforcement when the transfer window does eventually reopen.
