When Sean Dyche was speaking to us pitchside at Graz’s Merkur Arena on Wednesday night, he mentioned he had brought young players with the squad “as a necessity”, which begs the question: how has it come to this already?
Forest spent about £200m in the summer, receiving roughly half that amount in sales, with the idea of building a squad capable of competing on several fronts. So how are they short of numbers already?
Well, let’s look at the strikers. Chris Wood is injured, Igor Jesus is suspended (after being booked in all three of Forest’s European games), and Taiwo Awoniyi was not named in the Europa League squad by Nuno Espirito Santo, which leaves you with one fit senior striker for the meeting with Sturm Graz – Arnaud Kalimuendo.
Similarly, with the wingers, Omari Hutchinson was excluded from the squad by Nuno, and now the Reds have injuries to both Callum Hudson-Odoi and Dilane Bakwa, leaving Dan Ndoye as the only senior out-and-out winger.
The other fact worth noting is that you can name 12 subs for a Europa League game, so most clubs would quickly be resorting to young players once they have a few injuries anyway.
But, with Forest having one eye on a massive Premier League game against Leeds United at the City Ground on Sunday, the last thing they need is any more injuries picked up later.
Dyche is juggling that with the fact that a victory of any kind, against any opposition in any competition, would also be very welcome, with Forest having won just once anywhere since opening day.
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