James Garner creates five chances and scores once in latest Forest showing

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James Garner impressed for Nottingham Forest at the weekend in their away win over Blackpool. Last night he followed it up with another.

Garner scored the second goal as Forest beat Coventry City 2-0 to move into the fifth place and size a play-off place.

The Manchester United loanee struck a left-footed effort high past the goalkeeper in the second half to secure the three points for his side.

The Nottingham Post graded his performance 8/10, while FotMob rated him as the star man with a player rating of 8.7.

Garner the key man

Garner had 63 touches and completed 35 of his 40 passes attempted, 88 per cent. In doing so he managed to create five goalscoring chances.

Garner won two tackles, managed four interceptions and made five ball recoveries, in addition to scoring his goal.

This season he has four goals and four assists for Forest, with three of those assists coming in the last five games. With his five key passes last night, he was unlucky not to add another.

Winning promotion would be a great way for Garner to sign off his season, and simply getting the chance to feature in the high-stakes play-off games would be great for his career.

A chance lies ahead

Garner’s form for Forest has naturally brought a bit of spotlight to his future, but Manchester United remain in control.

The Telegraph report Manchester United fully intend to give Garner a chance to impress the new manager in pre-season, who will decide his plan for the youngster.

Garner, 21, will feel confident of making his mark at United, but if Forest earn promotion to the Premier League, there will be a case to loan him back there for a season.

Axel Tuanzebe was in a similar situation three years back, and in hindsight, would have benefited from being loaned back to Villa right after their promotion, having helped them go up. Instead his career has stalled due to lack of game time and injuries, and United may want to learn from this error.

Garner though, may simply show United’s next boss he is too good not to have around, and if Forest want a chance of keeping him for one more year, they will have to secure promotion.