THREAD. He's clearly divided #nffc fans since his arrival last summer after we splashed €15m on him, an unproven youngster from the Benfica academy, but would just like to put my thoughts out there on his situation, since the media are rather silent + more are turning on him🧐 
(1) First, a summary: Carvalho started slowly at Forest under AK, with him starting 5 and making 2 sub appearances in his first 7 games (being substituted OFF early on against both Reading and Wigan). We won only 1 of these 7, with JC making little impact when he did play.
(2) Now, after this period, Carvalho was given a run of NINETEEN consecutive starts in his favoured #10 position behind the striker. I've heard many complaints recently that the 3-0 Boro win towards the end of last season was his only "good" game for the club, but I'd argue...
(3) strongly against that. From his 8th app in the 2-1 SheffW win at the CG to the crazy 5-5 draw at Villa, a run of 12 games, Carvalho hit form and was performing like the €15m player #nffc had signed. With 2 goals and 6 assists, he was contributing to a goal every 124 minutes.
(4) Those aren't the stats of a player that can't make it in this league, like some are unfairly making out. Following this was the comfortable 2-0 Ipswich win, when we scored THAT goal (Carvalho providing the sublime pass to Darikwa). Then came a 1-0 home defeat to Preston...
(5) which was seemingly the beginning of the end for AK at Forest, in what turned out to be another all too familiar torrid Dec month. In the 5 match run from Preston to Millwall away, Forest lost 3 games (after losing 2 of the previous 20), failing to score in 4 of those 5...
(6) Bringing us to that 4-2 Leeds victory that proved ultimately a false dawn. Aitor was sacked and Simon Ireland stepped in as interim mgr. Carvalho, after a number of anonymous performances the month prior and 19 starts in a row, was finally dropped against Reading. Unused sub.
(7) Martin O'Neill was then appointed and took charge the following game against Bristol City - back to back losses. I, and many others, felt that MON had something against Carvalho from the start. He was strangely reluctant to properly address his omission from the line-up...
(8) and instead stubbornly stuck to a defensive central midfield 3. In his first 16 games at the club, O'Neill subjected Carvalho to intermittent substitute appearances, but he was eventually gifted a start. Against? Dean Smith's high-flying, dominant Villa side, in a 3-1 loss.
(9) With 1 start in 16, Carvalho didn't start again until that 3-0 Boro demolishing, his best performance in a Forest shirt by some way, and without doubt the best individual performance at Forest last season. He followed that up by grabbing another assist at QPR. A point proven.
(10) Now, to this campaign. Carvalho missed the majority of pre-season after picking up a nasty injury in the friendly against Alfreton - which seems like a long time ago now but it's clearly had knock-on effects. This led Carvalho to miss the first 5 games entirely... #nffc
(11) and since then, he's struggled to knuckle down a place in the side. Remember his purple patch last year and how that came about through consistent starts behind the striker? FACT: Carvalho, 22 matches into this season, is yet to start back-to-back games in the #10 role #nffc
(12) For me, Carvalho is completely wasted out on the wing. "But he played on the left in that Boro game you love to talk about"? We played 5 at the back that day and he played in a front 3 with Lolley and Ansarifard. He had the license to play freely - credit to MON for that.
(13) Carvalho is best deployed behind the striker with 2 advancing wingers either side of him. He got this with Osborn, Cash, and last season's Lolley. When do you see Ameobi make darting runs forward like the former two? Even Lolley, who is struggling atm, rarely does so.
(14) As things stand, the only alternatives are Silva and Lolley in the #10 role. Silva, like Carvalho, has just two goal contributions all season having played almost TWICE the amount, and we can't afford to play Lolley centrally if it means having to play Adomah and Ameobi.
(15) Now, don't get me wrong, Carvalho has been piss poor more than once - almost anonymous in quite a lot of games throughout his time at Forest (a common issue with players of his ilk), but the lad's younger than Worrall and just few months older than Yates...
(16) Point is, he's far from the finished article, so he will make mistakes, but he needs a chance to show what he can do + where he can do it. Imo, Forest must keep hold of him and sign a quality winger in January that he can work properly with to pose a genuine attacking threat
(17) Before he signed for us, he hadn't played a full season of first-team football, which makes the inflated fee we paid quite puzzling. A loan spell at Setubal and handful of appearances for Benfica was all he had, did we really expect consistency? We bought potential.
(18) Whether that was a smart thing to do or not, it shouldn't really matter in terms of how he's treated/viewed by the fans. As things are currently, SL looks reluctant to trust him, so it's easy to say the money was better spent elsewhere, but we've spent it. That's reality.
