João Carvalho, a player which can get supporters off of their seats in a matter of seconds with his ability on the ball but since joining the club back in 2018 for a club-record-fee it’s not been plain sailing for the 23 year old.
However, could this be the season Carvalho can get back to the kind of form he was reaching under his first manager at Forest, Aitor Karanka?
After it looked certain Carvalho would be gone in the summer when left out of the final few match-day squads, pre-season has seen him play some of the most minutes seen from any forest player in the current squad, which could be an indicator that Lamouchi plans to fit him into his side even with the signing of attacking midfielder Luke Freeman.
Last season Carvalho got nowhere near the amount of minutes he would’ve wished for in an underwhelming season for the Portuguese man, starting only 9 of the 23 games he was involved in, in the EFL Championship including the 4-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday and the 3-0 defeat to Millwall.
But theres more than what meets the eye when it comes to Carvalho’s poor form last season. He started on the sidelines for the first month of the season after picking up an injury in pre-season, which left him returning not fully fit. Also, when he was played it wasn’t always in his preferred central attacking midfielder role, instead he was put out wide where he was nowhere near as effective.
Carvalho never really got a run in the team last season with his most consecutive starts in a row being three compared to 19 the previous season which in this run he enjoyed his best spell at the club – improving and adapting to the league game by game.
If you were to go on to the #nffc timeline, there is no doubt that you would find a tweet with a variety of replies as to whether or not Carvalho should be starting for Forest with it being one of the most controversial topics discussed, with both sides usually giving valid points.
On his day, technically on the ball, Carvalho is the best at Forest and it’s the physical side of his game which can let him down, a key asset to playing in the Championship.
There has been games where Carvalho has ran the show, Middlesborough at home under Martin O’Neill being the prime example. Some regarded it as one of the best individual performances seen at The City Ground, making an experienced John Obi-Mikel look very average.
However, you’ve also got to consider how consistently he can perform like this. There’s no doubt he has ability and a great future ahead of him but to be able to keep his place in the team like any other player, he has to be doing his job – and well.
Have we seen him come close to replicating the same kind of performance as the one against Middlesborough since then? The simple answer is no but as said previously, a run of games is needed for him to settle back into the side. However, that is easier said than done, especially if the game plan in place is not successful and Forest are not getting the results needed with Carvalho in the side.
Something which the Forest side struggled with post lockdown was the creativity coming from central midfield. Maybe the formation including three defensive-minded players didn’t help with the creativity in the side but when Silva was called upon, minus the free-kick vs Bristol City, he struggled to conjure anything together. There was games which were screaming for Carvalho to be brought on and express himself.
With the first league game of the season approaching away to Mark Warbuton’s QPR, it’ll be interesting to see how big a part Carvalho will have to play. I think most Forest fans would be happy to see him in the starting 11 but Lamouchi has a tough call to make between him and Freeman for the central attacking role.
Hopefully this can be the season Carvalho proves his critics wrong and squashes the Twitter debate once and for all.
Harvey Lawrence's Sport Blog 