Joe Worrall admits Nottingham Forest have “not been good enough” in front of goal this season as he urged them to show more hunger in the final third.
The Reds were beaten 1-0 by Watford at the weekend as Adam Masina’s strike after 17 minutes kept the Hornets’ bid to return to the Premier League firmly on track.
Forest failed to register a shot on target in the Championship clash which again underlined their problems this season with only four sides having scored fewer goals in the Championship.
And stand-in captain Worrall, who produced another excellent performance, says they need to show more desire if they are to improve on the 28 goals they have scored this season.
“I think our top scorer is Lyle Taylor on four goals this season and it’s not good enough,” Worrall told Notts Live.
“The boys know that.
“There’s no blame culture, it’s not pointing fingers, it’s just a fact.
“We need to create more opportunities, we need to get the ball wide and crash the box.
“In terms of the numbers in the box, we don’t really get that.
“I think Yatesy (Ryan) is probably the most eager to go and crash the box from midfield and he needs to do it more often because he could easily get 10 goals a season. I
“It’s been been a regular thing that we just don’t really test their goalkeeper enough.
“We’ve hardly had any chances on Saturday, and I know they haven’t, but we’ve been defensively, pretty solid. But we need to score goals.”
Worrall has found himself contributing to Forest’s attack and registered an assist for James Garner’s goal against arch-rivals Derby last month.
But he maintained that others need to take responsibility.
“In the last couple of games I have found myself in the opposition penalty area running forward with the ball, but that’s something that I’m capable of,” he said.
“But it’d be nice for somebody else to really grab the game by its throat.
“I’d love to play on the wing or up front and run my gonads off every game to try to score because scoring is the best feeling.
“Keeping clean sheets is fantastic and obviously we love that. But scoring a goal, especially for Forest must be - and I can tell you - is a great feeling so the boys really need to push and try to get that feeling more often.”
