There's "no excuse" for not playing a young inexperienced player who was in the championship last season and was injured for most of this season? Come on mate, we can't have a sensible discussion about this if hyperbole like that is involved.
I think you've misunderstood me. I'm not saying there's no excuse for him not playing in general. Like I said, I may disagree, but I got why the likes of Rashford, Bruno, Garnacho, Antony, etc, were keeping him out of the team. I was only referring to the period where Forson was ahead of him in the pecking order.
The reasons given at the time didn't, and still don't, make sense to me. We know Amad is a better player at this moment in time, but, even leaving that aside, the supposed pros of Forson being ahead in the pecking order weren't valid in the first place. Some said it was because Amad doesn't work hard - he does. Some said it was because Amad wasn't impressing in training, which was the most valid argument, but we now know he was thanks to ten Hag praising his performances in training. Or, like you say here:
As for Forson, he's generally come on to play more centrally, so it's not a direct comparison between the two. But Forson has worked hard and played well, and has earned his minutes.
Amad is a central player. He always drifts inside when on the right, and has played plenty of games as a 10. The best part about his Sunderland stint was his link up play with Patrick Roberts as they would interchange as the 10 and RW with beautiful plays (alongside Hume at FB).
I don't think I'd agree that Forson played well and earned his minutes, myself. Nothing against the lad but he was just out of his depth. You mention his assist to Mainoo, and whilst I'm not turning my nose up at it, it was pretty basic. All in all, he just didn't show enough to me.
Regarding coasting at Sunderland, I've only really seen the highlights and my comment about him coasting is going by comments from Sunderland fans, but I'm willing to accept I'm not an authority about that. But in the Forest cameo he had, praise from ETH or not, the winning goal for Forest came from Amad giving the ball away with a sloppy pass, and he made next to no effort to get back. The likes of Garnacho (since his transformation) and Antony, and even Amad of his last few appearances, would have been busting a gut to get back.
Going forward, I think that Amad will definitely be getting more minutes, just like he was preferred today, as his recent performances have been good and he's shown the level of work rate required. If he's mysteriously dropped until the end of the season then I'll agree with you, but at the moment he's being rewarded for his performances with opportunities.
All that is fair! I've said before but, last season, if he messed up in possession, he sometimes threw a tantrum instead of tracking back, but it wasn't often. No excuses for that, but, in general, he did work very hard out of possession so the Forest bit didn't concern me that much. I forget who it was against, but, in one of our more recent games, he lost the ball but this time hounded the opposition back and won back possession for us.