So this is a bit of a tricky one.
Whenever a new manager comes in, there’s always going to be a ‘bedding in period’ where players get used to the manager’s system before we finally see what they can truly bring to a team. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, but even the best managers in the world can take a full season to get things in order.
After three games, you can sort of make the case that Sabri Lamouchi’s methods have finally got across to the players after a bit of a hectic pre-season, which included some pretty poor results, as they finally picked up their first victory of the season on Saturday.
If you wanted to get really technical, you could also make the argument that he already had things worked out from before the first game of the season. Had it not been for two rather catastrophic mistakes by Aro Muric against West Brom, Forest could be three games unbeaten to start the season including taking points off of two teams that both finished in the playoffs last year in West Brom and Leeds.
In fact, the team has now started to gel together so well that it begs the question, is this the best team? And as a result, what do you do with someone like Joao Carvalho when he comes back from injury? Reports say that Carvalho is currently back in training having succumbed to a heavy challenge during Forest’s pre-season game against Alfreton Town at the end of June.
But if things have finally started to click, when do you bring him in? Now I’m not suggesting that we forget about him completely and just allow Ben Watson to carry on his role in central-midfield, Joao Carvalho is a better midfielder and the statistics from last year prove that, with the Portuguese man contributing to four goals and eight assists whilst Watson didn’t provide any. But at the same time, if this system is working and Forest are picking up results, do you disrupt something that’s getting you points?
What do you think? Do you think he should be placed back into the starting eleven straight away when he’s fully recovered, or should we wait for things to start going bad before we let him loose again?
