Joe Worrall has emerged as a Nottingham Forest fan favourite upon recent years. After struggles of maintaining a secure spot in the centre of defence under Aitor Karanka, a loan spell under Steven Gerrard at Rangers would unlock the confidence and identity of the 24-year-old to eventually become a key figure at the heart of the Forest defence.
Having captained the club on various occasions and leading the defensive line in either a back three, four or five, Worrall has been the first defensive name on the team sheet over the past three seasons when uninjured.
Over the course of the last few seasons, Worrall has improved his concentration levels, defensive ability, passing range and versatility. He is now showing that he can operate as a two with Tobias Figueredo or Scott McKenna and that he can also play on the right-hand side of a back three with the aforementioned.
With Premier League outfits including Brentford, Southampton, and West Ham, linked to lure the reds centre half to the top tier of English football, the locally born academy graduate is continuing to show this season why Premier League clubs will want to circle around him come January. Statistics show that though Worrall missed the beginning of the season through injury, the Nottingham born man has continued to show his worth.
Worrall averages 53.5 passes per game, short and long. The highlight pass being the diagonal ball over to Max Lowe that ended up being the assist for Brennan Johnson’s goal against Blackpool. Of each pass throughout the season so far, Worrall has successfully completed 76% of them.
With regards to defending, the reds centre-back successfully averages 1.5 tackles per game, 2.4 interceptions, 4.1 clearances and 0.8 blocks. This compared to Scott McKenna’s 0.8 tackles, 0.9 interceptions, 3.4 clearances and 0.6 blocks shows that Worrall is putting up figures just as good as his counterpart and commands the back line extremely well.
With that comparison in mind, a twitter poll was raised this week, asking Nottingham Forest fans where they would rank Joe Worrall amongst Forest centre halves of recent times. With the likes of Wes Morgan, Jack Hobbs, Michael Dawson and more in mind, 172 fans cast their vote.
#NFFC fans I need your help again!!
Joe Worrall, where would you rank him amongst all of our centre halves of recent times?
— Callum Castel-Nuovo (@callumcasteln) November 16, 2021
The majority voted ‘Premier League standard’ with 36% of fans opting to hail him a top-level player, whilst 31% voted ‘Our best for years’ and another 31% voted ‘Not bad not great’. The final 2% voted ‘Other (comment)’ with conflicting judgements added to the poll.
One fan stated, “He’s alright, his distribution out from the back isn’t great and gets done a lot by teams further up in the league. He’s okay at this level, definitely not Premier League for me, personally think McKenna is better and more consistent.”
However, another fan opposed this suggesting, “I think he’s playing out of position to be honest! You say distribution not the best but started the moved for a few goals this season but think he would be better centrally with Mbe Soh on the right.”
One further Forest fan expressed favour for Scott McKenna and stated both McKenna and Worrall are the best centre halves the club have had since Jack Hobbs, also suggesting that Worrall could fit into many of the Premier League clubs in the bottom half.
Nevertheless, one supporter did say “He’d get destroyed in the Premier League.”
With the majority of fans on social media voting a positive outlook on Joe Worrall and statistics showing that he is a solid Championship centre-back, it remains to be seen whether the reds defender will leave Forest for the topflight in January or whether he will fight to get his home club there himself.
*Article provided by Callum Castel (Nottingham Forest Correspondent).
*Main image @NFFC Joe Worrall will play his 150th competitive Forest game at the weekend.