Transfer spotlight: Nottingham Forest’s Chris wood

Loaned to Nottingham Forest in January, Chris Wood is making the Tricky Trees his permanent club in this summer transfer window. According to what we reported at the time, the loan had a must-buy condition that required Nott’em Forest to act if Wood met specific requirements. It has been reported that the only condition for the loan agreement to become a permanent one was for Wood to start three games for his new club, despite neither Forest nor Newcastle ever making an official announcement to that effect.

Prior to suffering a season-ending injury, Wood participated in two more games (off the bench) and started five games for Forest. If the conditions mentioned above were in fact genuine (which appears to be the case), then Forest had already employed Wood for more games than the stipulated threshold, and the agreement was therefore all but finalized before Wood suffered his injury.

Background

Born in Auckland New Zealand on December 7 1991, Chris Wood is a striker for the New Zealand national team. He has always been passionate about football, so he displayed talent early.

In 2008, Wood began his professional career with a contract at West Bromwich Albion. Although he first found it difficult to make the first team, he learned while on loan at a number of different teams, including Barnsley, Brighton, and Millwall.

Wood joined Leicester in 2013 and started to establish himself there. He scored significant goals during Leicester’s productive 2nd-flight campaign to help the team win promotion to the Premier League. Wood, who struggled to establish himself as a regular starter in the Premier League, spent time on loan at Ipswich Town, Birmingham City, and other teams throughout his contract with Leicester.

Wood permanently relocated to Leeds in 2015, a storied English team. His career did indeed change as a result of this shift. Wood’s ability to score goals propelled him to prominence and helped Leeds’ campaign for promotion. He finished as the Championship League’s top scorer in 2016–2017 with 30 goals, securing Leeds a playoff position. Despite Leeds’ ultimately falling short of promotion that season, Wood received various honors and appreciation for his performances.

Due to Wood’s strong performances, Premier League clubs became interested in him, and in August 2017, he signed with Burnley FC for a club-record transfer fee. He had an instant effect in his first season, becoming Burnley’s top scorer. Wood was crucial because of his physical presence, aerial prowess, and precise finishing.

After his release clause was activated, Wood signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with Newcastle on January 13, 2022, for an estimated £25 million. He was a significant acquisition for Newcastle at a pivotal point in the season according to manager Eddie Howe. Wood himself described the transfer as an “exciting opportunity” by becoming the club’s second acquisition following it’s ownership change. Two days after joining, he started for Newcastle in a 1-1 tie with Watford, and on March 10, he scored his first goal for the team, an equalizer in a 2-1 league victory over Southampton.

How will Chris Wood fit in at Nottingham forest

Stat bombs

Aerial Prowess

This is Chris Wood’s best attribute. He dominates in the air, and this leads to his team retaining possession in the attacking half. The above graphic shows the approach he used at Burnley. The yellow arrows show the incompleted passes and the red arrows show completed passes. The Clarets played a very route-1 style.

This is an approach we could use more often, to help our defenders who aren’t very good at playing out from the back. Wood adds this dimension.

Fantasy Prospects

Currently, Nottingham Forest has 7 forwards. Since Taiwo Awonyi was Forest’s leading scorer last season, he will probably start more games than Wood.

Let’s exercise caution because Chris Wood is also still reportedly injured and could miss some games at the start of the new season.

If not, Wood should be included in the starting eleven.

Stats and info for this article were sourced from: skysports.com, whoscored.com, and sofascore.com. wikipedia.com

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