Nottingham Forest half term report: Strengthen attack and keep Joe Lolley

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The Reds are doing well on the surface, sitting seventh in the Championship table, but they’ve been misfiring up front in recent weeks.

It’s Christmas, a time for relaxation and reflection – until tomorrow, when the second half of the Championship season gets underway.

We’re 23 games into the 46-game marathon that is the top tier of the Football League, so it’s worth looking at how Nottingham Forest have done so far and whether fans are likely to be happy with their team’s exploits so far.

On the surface, it looks quite rosy – seventh in the table, three points from the playoffs, four league defeats all season, a creditable 32 goals scored and the third-lowest amount of goals conceded (23), behind Middlesbrough and leaders Leeds.

However, there have been just eight wins out of the Reds’ 23 league games so far, with a huge 11 draws – the highest out of all 24 teams in the division – suggesting that there are still some issues to address within the team before it could be considered a bona fide promotion contender.

At present, Forest’s main issue seems to be their wastefulness in the final third, and their last game prior to the Christmas break, the 1-0 home loss to Queens Park Rangers, is a perfect example of this problem (Sky Sports).

Against the R’s, Aitor Karanka’s side dominated possession (68.7%) and had 12 shots overall, but just two were on target, and factoring in 10 key passes and one clear-cut chance, you’d have thought a breakthrough would have been made.

As it turned out, the Reds fell behind to a Toni Leistner header, couldn’t come back from it, and got to full time having failed to score in their last three games, losing two of those.

In the Guardian’s 2018-19 Championship pre-season preview, Forest fan Michael Buckley said the club had “improved beyond all recognition” over the past 12 months and predicted a top-six finish.

The Reds certainly appear to be matching those expectations at the halfway point of the season, but the January transfer window will be a crucial time for the club.

Some attacking options should be sought to curb the wastefulness, while Joe Lolley, who has contributed to 14 goals, must be retained amid reported interest from Premier League outfits.