One to watch: Nottingham Forest’s 19-year-old forward Ben Brereton

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Ben Brereton is one of the younger strikers regularly starting in the second-tier of English football.

At 19, he is quite experienced at senior level with over 50 senior appearances to his name. It has not always been smooth sailing, though, with only eight goals to his name for Nottingham Forest in his career thus far.

His first season as a starter was handicapped by being played out of position at times on the wing before the arrival of Aitor Karanka, who played him at striker, but in an ineffective attacking system that produced just 19 goals in 21 games after the Spanish manager took the reins at Forest.

Play Style

Brereton is a striker who is reliant on quality service to play to his full potential.

At Forest, playing in a defensive-minded system under Karanka and playing in a struggling team, the English striker is often not been afforded the opportunities to make use of the penalty box threat he poses.

The 19-year-old took over 80% of his shots on goal from inside the box last season, but struggled to fashion clear opportunities for himself.

In the coming season, Brereton must work on becoming more comfortable playing with his back to goal, especially as his starting berth comes under threat with Forest’s summer acquisition of Lewis Grabban.

Season Ahead

It will be interesting to see how Karanka uses Brereton, after making comments last season about the importance of consistency in the young striker’s game.

“I can see ways he can improve. He has a lot of attributes to be a really good player. But he needs to be consistent; he needs to play in every game,” the Forest manager said.

“But when you are a young player, this is difficult. When you are 18, if he was consistent, he would be in the Premier League now.”

The upcoming season will be a huge test of the character of the 19-year-old striker.

Nottingham Forest have been extremely active in the summer, acquiring a number of different attacking options that could see his game time limited.

There is also the worry that he will not start on opening day due to missing a portion of Forest’s pre-season away on England duty with the Under-19 squad.