This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Not so soon.

There’s always an extra spice when it comes to Derby games, and that’s something that former Red Garry Birtles knows well. It’s something that could cause some problems for one player in particular.

What’s he said?

Speaking to Nottinghamshire Live, Birtles pointed out how the emotion gets to players and it can lead to some rather rash moments:

“We all know what these games meant to both clubs and both sets of supporters, and no doubt the opening exchanges will be chaotic as they usually are, so you hope that when things settle down, Forest’s ball players will take control and exert their authority over the Rams.”

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Too fiery for some?

Birtles also recently spoke, again to Nottinghamshire Live, and he noted how important it is to not change a winning line up.

And that message doesn’t strike any truer than when it comes to Forest skipper Michael Dawson.

Whilst Birtles is on the money when it comes to not changing a team that won the last match, there’s something else that comes into the equation and that’s his injury. This is where the two stories come together.

The latest injury report lists Dawson as being available for the game this week, but it seems that a match like this, and particularly at this time of the season, would be one encounter too early for him to be making his comeback.

Not only will leaving him out of the clash take him out of the firing line from any rash challenges that might take place in the opening exchanges, but also give him that little bit of extra rest as he recovers from his calf injury.

Forest showed what time off can do for the team when they beat Luton Town last weekend, with Lewis Grabban scoring the opener after they’d previously had a game postponed.

With the international break just around the corner, it would be best if Lamouchi gave Dawson the week off and let him have that extra time away to make sure that he is at 100% when he comes back from injury.

Lamouchi has shown that he doesn’t have a lot of faith in Dawson’s backup Chema and Tobias Figueiredo by constantly swapping the two of them around in recent fixtures rather than sticking with one of them, so that proves just how important he is to the team.

Rather lose him for just one more game, than risk losing him for a lot more in the future.