Nottingham Forest were left frustrated on Saturday as the awful weather conditions meant the Reds would have to wait a while longer to try and bounce back from their loss to Hull City.
The heavy rainfall in the East Midlands saw Forest’s game at home to Reading postponed, with a rearranged date to be announced in due course.
It means that the Reds supporters must dwell on that shock defeat to the Tigers last Wednesday for a little while longer, with Forest not back in action now until next Saturday when they travel to Luton Town.
One area of boss Sabri Lamouchi’s team selection that is likely to start causing a stir is the conundrum involving Portuguese duo Tiago Silva and Joao Carvalho.
The £13.2 million man has failed to scale the heights of last season just yet and that isn’t really surprising considering he missed the vast majority of pre-season.
MORE FOREST STORIES
Silva has been utilised as the team’s number 10 on occasions this season, with Carvalho occasionally forced out wide on the left-hand side of a three-pronged attack.
At the moment it is proving problematic for Lamouchi to pick both in the same team and moving forward it seems likely that the Frenchman will need to choose between just one of them.
What doesn’t help matters is that both, on paper, should be able to play in the same team. Silva has more battling qualities about him, whilst Carvalho in the number 10 so often came up trumps for the Reds last season.
Carvalho has just one goal and one assist to his name in all competitions this season and he is clearly struggling to rediscover the form which made him such an asset during 2018/19. On the basis that he has been used out of position a lot of the time, that isn’t overly surprising, however.
Decision
Silva has contributed two assists in the Championship but it seems very unlikely at this stage that both will play in the same team as the season progresses.
That leaves Lamouchi with a big conundrum to crack and it could be that the pair rotate during the course of the season.
The 26-year-old can operate in the middle of the park but as was the case against Hull, his presence in there can often leave Ben Watson exposed on the counter.
With Samba Sow and Alfa Semedo fit you wouldn’t really want one of those two missing out at the expense of Silva anyway.
The Forest squad boasts lots of quality these days but perhaps, more importantly, Lamouchi now has two players for pretty much every position on the pitch.
Placing square pegs in round holes is just a silly exercise and the Forest boss could be approaching the point where he has to place his faith in either Carvalho or Silva, rather than utilising both.