Nottingham Forest played out a 1-1 draw with Preston North End on Saturday and Samba Sow came away with the plaudits from some supporters. The 30-year-old came off the bench after the restart and put in a good performance to help rescue a point after Forest went behind before half-time.
Sow replaced Alfa Semedo and made 39 touches, created two chances, won one aerial duel, made two successful dribbles, drew one foul, made five tackles, one clearance and completed 83.3% of his 24 passes. The Mali international was signed for around £630k from Dynamo Moscow and has started brightly in the East Midlands.
Superb performance from Samba Sow in the second half, won the ball back for fun. Passed it well and carried it forward when he could. Hope he gets a run of starts after the break #NFFC
— Greg (@canwenotknockit) August 31, 2019
Thought all 3 substitutes were very effective today and #NFFC looked far better with them on the pitch. Very impressed with Sow 👌 Worrall had another great game.
Thought Preston let themselves down with the constant play-acting & time wasting.
— Psycho was back (@psychoFTID) August 31, 2019
https://twitter.com/biltonsteve/status/1167843707086876672?s=20
https://twitter.com/kingkieren10/status/1167882481170649088?s=20
https://twitter.com/Nicky_Long/status/1167860207566721024?s=20
Would like to see Sow, Bostock plus 1 other in midfield after the international break. I think longer term this season they will offer us better energy, passing range and quality in the middle. #nffc
— Ash Bult (@ash_bult) August 31, 2019
https://twitter.com/timmins99/status/1167833656179793925?s=20
– Sow changed the tempo and made forest more aggressive
– prefer cash at RB at home games to jenkinson as attacks more
– Carvalho needs to start
– Adomah needs to start every game too instead Ameobi who is average
-Lolley too predictable today— David (@dave5bassett) August 31, 2019
Sabri Lamouchi will have a selection headache when his side face Swansea City on September 14. Against Preston, he used Ben Watson in a defensive-midfielder role with Tiago Silva and Alfa Semedo ahead of him, but Lamouchi may have to find a way to incorporate Sow given his game-changing ability.
The summer signing has racked up 241 minutes of Championship football this season, averaging 21.3 passes-per-game with 78.8% accuracy, winning 36% of his aerial duels, boasting a 43% dribble success rate, blocking eight shots/passes/crosses while averaging a tackle (17) or interception (9) every nine minutes.