Diogo Goncalves & Joao Carvalho

[GaribaldiRED]

Not sure how you define a luxury player but in my book that is a player who is only contributing in attack. If we use my definition then Carv is definitely not a luxury player. Carv is working very hard for the team both in attack and in defense. He has certainly surprised me with his willingness to contribute defensively (as has Dias). Carv has clearly a lot of ability combined with a quick footballing brain which is a deadly combination and I believe we are seeing more and more of that coming through as he's coming to terms with the pace of the Championship. Please keep in mind that this is a player who is only 21 and has just come to the Championship from a foreign country where he has more or less only played U21 level football. I have to say that I'm quite impressed that he has been able to play in almost all league games since the start of the season and he has been gradually getting better and better. And I don't agree that be had a bad game against Preston. He did have one or two missed passes but he still had a good enough game. There is still a long way to go for Carv but I have no doubt that he will be a very important player for Forest in years to come.

He is not exempt from criticism and his set pieces in particular against Preston were awful. 

That said I was hoping to pull out his distance covered statistics over the season so far but haven’t been able to find them yet. I think he covers more ground than people realise.

Agree on both points.

[Strawberry Avenger]

We paid for potential  . Carvalho at times has oozed class. Class in midfield that we haven't seen for a very long time

Spot on.

...and that will blow hot and cold for his 1st Championship season.  

...and Forest want promotion 'now.'

That's the dilemma.  If they want that.  They need another ACM in January.  A CH and Keeper upgrade and another LB.

That's four players before we look at the 'winger' to upgrade Dias...or a striker to compete with Grabban.

SA.

[the jock]

I completely agree with you sa

[GaribaldiRED]

That's a lot of new faces SA. Lets say that we can only sign 3 new players (as I believe that will/should be the limit). Who would you replace?

I would go for the following three:
- Keeper: one that is comfortable with the at the feet and are actually able to pass it to a teammate (in addition to being a very good goalkeeper)
- CH: One with some real pace (in addition to being a very good CH)
- Winger: We currently don't have anybody that can match Lolley. It would be great to have one more that dares to run at defender at every opportunity.

[Username]

I think we need another left back, we are clearly short in that position.

[GaribaldiRED]

A left back is a bit down on my list of priorities as we already have Robinson and Osborn who are both good enough for the time being. After a keeper, CH and winger I would go for an ACM and then a pacy striker.

[Username]

Interesting that both Appiah and Yates were on the bench ahead of Goncalves today.

Also when we were 2-1 down and chasing the game Aitor elected to bring Osborn on for Lolley ahead of Dias.

Surely neither player has a future here under Aitor?

[Salvatore Matrecano]

Ben looked like he had a point to prove didnt he? I think he totally changed the game when he came on, the thought does occur if he had come on as sub instead of Dias vs Norwich we would have won and the nonsense of the last week would not have happened.

[HykehamRed]

Ben didn’t celebrate his goal either...

[the jock]

Surely goncalves is gone and dias is hanging on by a thread

[Alf]

Surely goncalves is gone and dias is hanging on by a thread

Both are totally the wrong types of player which we need here. I'd be happy to see Yates, Benny, Anel, and a shed load of other academy produced players ahead of them.

[Duncan Mckenzie]

So, it looks as though Goncalves could well be leaving the club this month if reports from Portugal are to be believed.