Joe Worrall: A progressive journey from youth team to first team and now defensive solidity

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Joe Worrall has made huge steps in his Nottingham Forest career: from rejecting Derby County and Leicester City for the Reds to now being captain of the East Midlands side.

The Midlanders have lost just three of their 12 matches since the turn of the new year in which the 24-year-old has completed a full 90 minutes, but the central defender’s pathway to the captain’s armband has had plenty of twists and turns.

Rising from the youth ranks at the Reds, the Hucknall-born player made his professional debut for Dagenham & Redbridge in January 2016 before going on to make his debut in the Garibaldi in October that year in a 2-0 defeat against Reading.

He began to make his influence on the club in the 2017/18 season where he went on to make 31 appearances for his beloved club in the Championship.

The manager at the time, Aitor Karanka, decided to loan out the defender for the 2018/19 campaign in search of more experience to get him up to speed and to prove that he is a Championship level defender.

Scottish Premiership side, Rangers, decided to bring the 22-year-old in as he carried on learning his trade on proving that he should not have been loaned out.

2019/20 is where Worrall came into his own and played all 46 Championship matches that season as Forest narrowly missed out on the Play-Offs on goal difference.

The defender played a vital part in that fantastic campaign notching one goal and four assists as he looked to go from strength to strength under the guidance of Sabri Lamouchi.

A poor start to the current campaign saw the Frenchman sacked in October as Chris Hughton stepped into the hot-seat at the City Ground.

Worall missed out on the whole of October and November as he battled with coronavirus but was able to return to full health and fitness with the centre-back returning to the side in December and has played 90 minutes in every match since his return to the squad.

A firm fans favourite at the City Ground, he has gone on to make over 100 appearances in the famous Garibaldi as Forest have been able to fend off bids from Premier League clubs, including Burnley, who have been keen to sign him.

Even though it was Ryan Yates who took all the plaudits after his game-winning goal in the 67th minute, the Nottingham Forest captain was as calm as you’d like your leader to be.

With the game at 0-0 for most of the first half, the centre-back had his back-line extremely organised and made sure that there were no gaps in the defence.

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They forced the Millers to only long-range attempts in the first 45 minutes as they put their bodies on the line to keep ahold of the clean sheet and were a brick wall that Rotherham found hard to break down.

Right at the death, pin-balling in the Forest penalty area saw Michael Smith hit the bar from close range. The captain calmed everything down as the ball floated from one side to the other with Worrall eventually heading away only for the late substitute, James Garner, to be fouled and a free-kick for the visitors was awarded.

The 24-year-old showed against Rotherham United how he is improving and that he has come a long way since his youth days.

Making the most headed clearance (8), the skipper let the Rotherham forwards know his aerial presence and that he would do what it takes to get his club over the line in this crucial encounter in Yorkshire.

On top of that, he won the joint-most aerial duals (5) and made 13 clearances throughout the whole 90 minutes of the encounter at the AESSEAL New York Stadium.

The defender still has to learn some things, especially on the passing front. With a 64 per cent pass success rate, Worrall needs to make sure that his passes aren’t intercepted by the opposition forwards as it happened against Paul Warne’s men on a few occasions.

That goes without saying that his passing range is brilliant and he can distinguish between a short pass that doesn’t need a lot of weight put on it and a much longer pass that may need more zip and power to reach its intended target.

The win 1-0 victory against Rotherham was Nottingham Forest’s third clean sheet in five matches as the back-line with Worrall at the heart of it looks the best it has ever been.

The leadership qualities that he has gained are amazing and if he can continue to lead by example and show his manager that he can consistently put in a fantastic performance, he will definitely be a mainstay in the side.

Chris Hughton will be hoping that his captain can stay fit and healthy as the club enters the final straight in the season with 14 games to go and 42 points still up for grabs.

Hucknall-born Worrall will be hoping that his side and especially defence can keep up the good work into the latter stages of the campaign so that they can end the season on a positive note and enter the 2021/22 season with something to prove.

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