Plug & Play - Nicolas Domínguez

Forest's most versatile player proved his worth once again v Man City

Another game against one of the Premier League’s big sides, and another fantastic performance from Forest’s Argentinian army-knife. He’s been used in pretty much every midfield role possible since he joined in 2023, this time on the right of a midfield 3. But before we dig into his performance against Man City, let’s look at his usage on the pitch during his Forest career.

Domínguez’s Premier League playing time for Forest since joining in 2023.

His appearance against Man City on Wednesday night increased Domínguez’s total Premier League minutes to 4,557, the equivalent of just over 50 full matches. He has spent just over half that time (2,359 minutes) playing in a midfield 2, pretty evenly split between playing on the left and right of centre.

Playing in a midfield pair was his most common position at Bologna too, but often in a Forest shirt I feel we’ve seen his best moments come when he’s used in different positions.

All of Domínguez’s average position locations in each of his Premier League appearances this season.

Since he’s joined we’ve seen him put in some great, hard-working performances all across the midfield, including at Anfield earlier this season on the left-wing. On Wednesday though, with Forest in what can most easily be described as a 5-3-2 (or perhaps 5-3-1-1) formation, Domínguez was asked to sit to the right of Ibrahim Sangaré.

Average positions for Forest at Man City - with Domínguez just to the right of Sangaré, but tucking in a lot to help defend the centre.

If Forest were playing against a side with ‘traditional’ wingers and full backs, then Domínguez would have been asked to do a lot more work out wide (as we’ve seen previously when he’s been used on the wing), but because Man City’s width was provided by their full backs, he was able to concentrate on defending the width of the penalty box in Forest’s half.