, Aitor Karanka gives players he did not select for Bristol City match a message

Aitor Karanka gives players he did not select for Bristol City match a message

Nottingham Forest head coach Aitor Karanka has told the Nottingham Post that the players not selected for that game will still be used at some point this season.

There was a lot of pressure on Forest going into yesterday’s Sky Bet Championship opener against Bristol City because of the money they spent on new signings this summer. And any fans thinking it was going to be an easy cruise to promotion were given a tough lesson as the Robins held them to a draw. Bristol City got an early lead through Andreas Weimann but Forest were able to equalise through Daryl Murphy early in the second half.

One of the stories emerged before the game even started was some of the players not even in the Forest matchday squad. Because of the quality brought into the club this summer, it was always likely that some players would end up missing out. But seeing players such as Ben Brereton, Hillal Soudani and Liam Bridcutt left out was a shock to many.

Karanka addressed this after the game saying that even if players aren’t selected for a match, they will still have a role to player later on in the season.

He said: “They need to understand. I told them I do not know how many times that it is impossible to achieve something with 11 players,”

“They need to realise that there will be injuries and there will be players who, one day, will not play their best and will not play the next game. Everyone needs to understand their role.”

“It might be that a player who started the game this weekend might not be playing in two or three games. He might be in the stands.”

“For me, I need to be fair with everyone. Everyone needs to understand that just because they were not in the side today, it does not mean that they won’t be back on the bench or back on the pitch soon.”

“Maybe a player who was in the stands this weekend will be on the pitch in the following game.”

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