Player of the month: August

 As we exit the international break I've been looking at which players escaped the nightmare month of August with any credit. This is my shortlist for, and finally my player of the month.

=5. Riley Harbottle & Tyrese Fornah

Were it not for the cup exploits of some of the younger players, I would be struggling to point to half a dozen who have done reasonably well this season. None of the under 23’s let themselves down against Bradford and Wolves but Riley Harbottle and Tyrese Fornah in particular stood out.

Fornah had an outstanding game against The Bantams, wowing The City Ground in a midfield general role. Available and confident on the ball, he looks a crowd pleasing type of defensive midfielder.

However he will also have pleased the purists like myself for his defending – he made a defensive contribution every 9.55 minutes over the two games. The amount of attacking our opponents did in those games lent itself to favourable statistics like this, but he was defending well even more regularly than Ryan Yates has managed this season which is a good indication of how effective Fornah was off the ball.

Harbottle, for the first hour of both games, was almost faultless defensively. The young back four faced a tough couple of games – everybody can appreciate the quality and movement Wolves brought and to hold out for 58 minutes was an achievement, but I found it just as impressive how they did against Bradford. It’s often overlooked how difficult younger players find it against crafty, more experienced lower league teams; Harbottle led the defence well.

He looks like a ball-playing central defender, willing to make brave passes and eager to carry the ball into midfield. If he can do this at a higher level he will adapt well to modern football.

Both players made a few errors against Wolves, perhaps trying to do too much on the ball when a less progressive, more pragmatic option was the answer, but this does not take away from the quality of their contributions.

 4. Ryan Yates

Ryan Yates does what Ryan Yates does, no matter how the team are doing, this player can be relied upon to do his job - to effect the game and make things difficult for opponents, and he’s been doing it during this poor first month of the season.

Yates has made easily the most defensive contributions this season (40), one every 11.4 minutes. This may have been boosted by the wider reaching role he has taken on defensively; Chris Hughton has allowed the wingers more licence to lurk forward of play leaving the makeshift full-back areas in need of protection, this has come from the two central midfielders, who have needed to put in a lot of work.

Things haven’t gone perfectly – in particular he’s made a couple of fouls that have contributed to opposition goals and has looked ragged at times, but Yates has certainly not been the problem and if we take away his defensive contributions Forest would have conceded more goals.

 3. Brennan Johnson

Perhaps the best business of the summer transfer window was holding onto our young talent, with Brennan Johnson foremost in this consideration.

Johnson has found it difficult to be involved at times during August, due to problems with Forest’s overall play, but whenever he has found the ball in space he has demonstrated game-changing ability. Especially effective on the turnover, he has a lot of pace and looks very dangerous running with the ball into space and at times has terrified defenders.

His end product has been excellent; Johnson has been involved in a goal during league games on average every 136 minutes. It’s a very small data sample, but this is an excellent return – Forest have had seasons recently where no player came close to contributing this regularly.

 2. Philip Zinckernagel

Watford loanee Philip Zinckernagel has been the main source of attacking class in a Forest team struggling for creativity.

Players of this type sometimes tend to slip in and out of games – we saw that a lot last season with Anthony Knockaert, but when he’s involved Zinckernagel has already looked much more potent.

Statistically he is already contributing well to the Forest attack; he has been involved in a goal every 114 minutes. This drops to every 203 minutes when only league games are counted, but this is still a good amount for a player in such an uncreative team.

But the most impressive aspect of Zinckernagel’s play for me has been his contribution off the ball. He is a good communicator, taking the opportunity to offer advice to other, particularly younger, players, and his defensive contributions were excellent during August – he completed 16 defensive actions during the league games, which is good for a winger. Only Ryan Yates has made more tackles this season for Forest.

 1. Finley Back

The brightest spark of the disappointing first month of the season has perhaps been the surprise emergence of of Finley Back. The 18 year old right back starred in the League Cup, but also played against Blackburn and Stoke in The Championship.

The full-backs appear to have been told to play quite conservatively so far, and that probably helped Back – he also seemed to get as lot of support from Zinckernagel when playing together. This has created the conditions for him to do well, but he still needed to do the business himself, and has looked remarkably unperturbed.

Back’s defensive awareness and positioning have been superb, and this is confirmed statistically as he made on average more successful defensive actions per minute than any Forest player during August.

He also contributed to two goals against Bradford – in the cup we were able to see him venture forward a little more and he seems to have an eye for a pass into the inside forward positions.

His attitude immediately won over the fans, in fact he was the one player showing leadership and encouragement as the goals began to fly in against Wolves, something the senior team has perhaps been short of over the past few years.

Very much one for the future, Finley Back is my player of the month for August.

You can read my tactical review of August here.

Thanks to: whoscored.com, sofascore.com, footballleagueworld.com & bbc sport.