The Forest boss said the “character” his side showed after going behind, by fighting back and equalise almost immediately after conceding, is proof they have the spirit for the battle to qualify for the Champions League.
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But there is another simple fact that Espirito Santo will not address but that anyone who has watched Forest this season knows is an uncomfortable truth.
His first 18 goals came in just 25 Premier League appearances this season. In the next eight games, he has managed just one, a run that has encompassed Forest falling out the Champions League places, dropping 16 crucial points along the way.
A season better than Salah’s
Even Mo Salah can’t match Chris Wood’s efficiency (Photo: Reuters)First of all, Wood has been on a hot streak that has defied statistical models. The 33-year-old has an expected league goals total of 11.4 this season, yet he has bagged 19, outperforming the data by a whopping 7.2 goals.
Wood’s two shots against Palace were both blocked, one in the first half when the angle was always closing and one more clear-cut in the second half when he took a couple of touches allowing Maxime Lacroix time to get a foot in front.
Espirito Santo knows this. But he also knows better than to shake the confidence of a striker before three effective cup finals.
www.instagram.com/optaanalyst/p/DJHNg-Foa-H/“But we cannot get take away what Chris has been giving to us. It’s huge. It’s magnificent.”
“The last these three games we are going to need them all. We’re going to need the best of each one of them.”
So he needs the players around him to keep giving him the kind of chances where he can meet a floated cross at the back post or pull back from a defender and meet a low pass from the byline. Most commonly this season, that has been Anthony Elanga, the former United winger who has found a new lease of life as the counter-attacker-in-chief at the City Ground.
With Callum Hudson-Odoi out injured, Elanga’s pace on the break and connection with Wood is even more important.
Just give it to him? It’s perhaps not as simple as that, but the data seems to show it will help.
‘It’s very, very hard’
The Forest manager says his players are being pushed mentally and physically (Photo: Reuters)“We are pushing the players, not only physically, but mentally, in this big fight that we are involved in. We are proud to be in it,” he added.
“We go more or less in the cycle of the teams that are competing in Europe [by playing twice a week].
“It’s very hard. Very, very hard. It’s very demanding on the players. That’s what I mean, we are pushing them physically and mentally because we are involved in a fight that nobody expect us to be.”
Just listen to that roar Chris Wood opens the scoring for Nottingham Forest through a perfectly executed break @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/pFyMCc3zLl
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) January 14, 2025“We’re gonna need legs, gonna need the energy, we’re gonna need some luck,” said Santo.
They’re also going to need some Chris Wood magic. They have to hope he has a little left.
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