Ryan Yates

[GaribaldiRED]

Somebody who's been going to games please correct me if I'm wrong but from what I've seen we look much more organised with Yates in the team as opposed to Watson? Imo I'd really like to see Yates in the team, gives us another approach rather than 2 very defensive minded players.

I see your point but I don't think that Yates has the right attributes to replace Watson. If you look at the formation we are playing (4-2-3-1) the 2 defensive players are extremely important. As far as I understand how Karanka wants to play (also taking into consideration how Mourinho is setting up his teams) the 2 defensive players have different roles and responsibilities:

One of the defensive midfielders should have excellent passing ability (and range) in order to be able to dictate the tempo of the match. I would say that currently our best DCM to cover this role is probably Adlène Guedioura, although he hasn't showed too much proof of being a deep lying playmaker in recent times. Behind Geddy we have Liam Bridcutt and to a lesser extent Jack Colback as I don't really classify him as a natural playmaker. Maybe Ben Osborn could have done a good job here and Ryan Yates as well if he is staying at Forest. But I believe Nikola Vukcevic would have been perfect  :)  Maybe this Liverpool guy Pedro Chirivella, that we have been linked with could do this job as well?

The other DCM is tasked with covering for defenders that are bringing the ball forward (usually the full backs). This second role requires a tactical intelligent player who's capable of reading the game and sniffing out where the biggest danger is going to be. I believe Ben Watson is our best player to occupy this role and probable is one of the best ones in the Championship at doing just this. Both Jack Colback and Liam Bridcutt are also more than capable of covering this role but I don't think that Ryan Yates is ready to have this kind of responsibility yet.

Just some thoughts!