Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Lewis McGugan feels the looming presence of Sam Surridge has heightened the scrutiny on under-fire striker Andre Ayew.
Steve Cooper's decision to bring Ayew on for Taiwo Awoniyi early in the second half at Brentford has been criticised by fans after Forest went on to lose the game.
Plenty felt Ayew had a poor game but the consensus on the latest Garibaldi Red podcast was that he had not played too badly, with McGugan believing Surridge is not trusted to the same degree as Ayew by Cooper.
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Surridge, 24, has played just 63 minutes of first team football since the January transfer window closed while Ayew, 34, who played for Cooper at Swansea, has had 306.
McGugan feels the verdict on Ayew is now in with fans firmly in Surridge's camp after the valuable role he played in winning promotion.
He said: "That's football isn't it? Everyone will have their opinions and everyone is entitled to them. More so now, I think the discarding of Surridge is having an impact on Ayew. He's not being played and the questions is always asked, why not?
"People are frustrated and it pinpoints things on Ayew. If you didn't have a player fans feel is a better option, I don't think you'd always have this focus on Ayew.
"There's obviously a breakdown somewhere, whether it's at the training ground or tactically. There's something there we aren't privy to with Surridge not playing. That puts pressure on the manager because fans want their player to be picked.
"The manager is aware of that and going his way with what he sees. When you talk about trust, it's obviously there massively. He has a really good connection with the manager.
"As a manager, it's very easy to implement ideas when things are going well, to talk to players and drop them. When things are difficult a changing room, like any workplace, it changes. Players talk and maybe you have one group who think the manager is brilliant and another isn't sure.
"Sometimes as a manager you need that support. I've been in changing rooms when there are players bought in by a manager. When there is uncertainty that player can tell other players 'I understand what he's doing. It's worked before.'
"If the training ground and working environment isn't right then it's irrelevant on Saturday because the plan won't work."
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