Nottingham Forest cup defeat highlights importance of Adlene Guedioura

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Nottingham Forest were knocked out of the EFL Cup by League One side Burton Albion on Tuesday evening, much to the dismay of their disapproving supporters.

The Reds were handed a real chance to reach the last eight of the League Cup for the first time in 25 years, but crucially fluffed their lines against a hardworking Brewers team.

Boss Aitor Karanka made 10 changes to the side that played so well in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Leeds United and he could now be regretting such a big decision.

One thing that the Spaniard’s team selection did highlight on Tuesday, was the important of Algerian midfielder Adlene Guedioura to the Forest starting line-up.

The 32-year-old wasn’t in the squad for the EFL Cup game and his omission from the Reds’ midfield was sorely felt.

With Karanka choosing to use a 4-2-3-1 system, it is vital that the midfield duo boast completely different attributes and Ben Watson and Liam Bridcutt were quite frankly too similar to play in tandem.

it is perhaps quite telling that the experienced performer hasn’t been on the pitch for any of Forest’s three defeats in all competitions this season.

The Reds have played free-flowing, attacking football all too infrequently this season but the quality of their play has improved considerably when Guedioura has been present in the middle of the park.

Although the fan favourite wasn’t one of the club’s stellar summer recruits, it is becoming pretty evident that Guedioura should be one of the first names on Karanka’s team sheet.