Nottingham Forest suffered their first defeat in eight games at Birmingham City on Saturday and naturally, an inquest will take place.
The Reds have bucked the trend of losing games regularly this season and now into February the season is still alive.
Being beaten isn’t something Forest under Sabri Lamouchi have experienced all too often.
Defeat at St Andrew’s on Saturday was the Reds’ seventh in 30 league games and confidence will remain high.
With new players who arrived in January chomping at the bit to start, some players know they must start upping their performance levels.
For one central midfielder, it might not be a new man snapping at his heels, but a player who has found first-team football hard to come by.
Ryan Yates has played 13 games for Forest this season but hasn’t offered the same sort of promise which he did under Martin O’Neill during 2018/19.
The different style of play under Lamouchi hasn’t suited his tenacious style and there’s an argument that there isn’t really a need for both Yates and Ben Watson in the same starting eleven.
__VIDEO__
John Bostock arrived on loan from Toulouse in the summer but has struggled to make an impact.
He played brilliantly well against Derby in the Carabao Cup but when handed a league start in a defeat to Wigan, he didn’t cover himself in glory.
Resurgence
Since that game at the DW Stadium in October, Bostock has made just one substitute appearance.
During the last 11 games he hasn’t even featured in the 18-man matchday squad and there was talk that he might leave during January.
The 28-year-old remains a Forest player, however, and Lamouchi might choose to bring him in from the cold.
The Reds boss will want to have options between now and the end of the season and there might be hope for Bostock just yet.
He might just offer a little bit more elegance alongside Watson, should Samba Sow continue to nurse his niggling injury.
Yates proved last season that he could become a decent player in the future.
Right now though he is offering very little to the team and if Lamouchi fancies mixing things up, Bostock might be the man to hand a lifeline too.
Receive a digest of our best Nottingham Forest content each week direct to your mailbox
