Hitting the back of the net has been a problem for Nottingham Forest all season, with numbers in that area continuing to head in the wrong direction.
Over the early weeks of the campaign, a lack of firepower was of no real concern.
Points were being picked up on a regular basis and positive progress was being made.
The Reds even hit top spot in the Championship at one stage.
A gradual slide down the standings of late now has Sabri Lamouchi’s side sat ninth.
With a game in hand, admittedly, and with the potential to break back into a top-six pack which remains within touching distance.
Forest will, however, feel as though they should already be established inside that group.
Fortune, they say, favours the brave, and the Reds have started to look a little timid.
Especially in the final third of the field.
Creativity
Struggles when it comes to creativity and scoring goals are getting worse, not better.
Across the opening 17 games of the 2019-20 campaign, in the second tier, Forest’s conversion rate stood at 15.79.
Not great, but not a disaster either.
There was certainly room for improvement and a 4-0 victory over QPR suggested that the tide may be turning.
Against 10 men at Loftus Road, the floodgates had finally been opened.
Forest haven’t won since.
They have found the target just four times across five games – drawing a blank twice – and collected only two points from a possible 15.
Unsurprisingly, conversion figures have dipped again.
A figure which was supposed to become upwardly mobile, as the Reds did likewise, has been cut in half.
Which is not a good thing.
Miserly
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Since a trip to west London on November 27, Lamouchi’s men have fired in 51 shots on goal (excluding blocks).
Only 18 of them have been on target, with the aforementioned four efforts recorded.
That’s a conversion rate of a rather miserly 7.84.
In order to be competitive and sustain a promotion push, you would hope to see those numbers ticking over at around one in four – one in five at the least.
Forest have dipped below one in 10.
The need for attacking reinforcements was clear before we entered dreaded December, and the opening of another window cannot come soon enough.
If a crumb of comfort is to be found, though, then there is one straw to be clutched before January arrives.
Only one side boasts a worse conversion rate than the Reds over the course of the last month.
Who are that side? Derby.
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