Chris Wood (now playing for Nottingham Forest)

[kingxlnc]

If Murphy was in this form back when Wood was here…

[Geordie Ahmed]

16 minutes ago, Gh0StFaC3 said:

I'm really scratching my head with this guy... how can he be firing so well now, but look like an absolute plodder for us (for the majority of his stint anyway)?

Makes me wonder why Howe wasn't able to identify his strengths and get the most out of him and/or structure our playing style to get him the right level of service.

 

Really hate seeing former players excel after leaving us.  

 

I don't think Howe was prepared to change everything just to get more out of him, the team was the bigger picture and we reaped the rewards for that

 

I do think Wood was useful for us even if his output wasn't great, he would drop deep and allow the wide players to get further up the pitch

 

Useful signing, played his part, we got decent money for him and happy to see him do well as he always came across as a decent guy

[Erikse]

22 minutes ago, Gh0StFaC3 said:

I'm really scratching my head with this guy... how can he be firing so well now, but look like an absolute plodder for us (for the majority of his stint anyway)?

Makes me wonder why Howe wasn't able to identify his strengths and get the most out of him and/or structure our playing style to get him the right level of service.

 

Really hate seeing former players excel after leaving us.  

 

He also had a stinker for Burnley that season compared to his other seasons with them. Maybe it was just confidence? It took some time before he started firing at Forest aswell. Just 4 goals in his first 11 months with them. Ironically the hat trick against us really did something, that's where it kicked off for him.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 23:24 by Erikse

[Gawalls]

4 minutes ago, Erikse said:

 

He also had a stinker for Burnley that season compared to his other seasons with them. Maybe it was just confidence? It took some time before he started firing at Forest aswell. Just 4 goals in his first 11 months with them. Ironically the hat trick against us really did something, that's where it kicked off for him.

 

 

 

All the forest fans I work with say that was down to their previous manager and not him. 

[Jaqen]

Felt like he struggled with the pressure of playing for a bigger club. He looked a nervous wreck anytime he got a chance particularly towards the end of his time here.  

[80]

19 minutes ago, Geordie Ahmed said:

 

I don't think Howe was prepared to change everything just to get more out of him, the team was the bigger picture and we reaped the rewards for that

 

I do think Wood was useful for us even if his output wasn't great, he would drop deep and allow the wide players to get further up the pitch

 

Useful signing, played his part, we got decent money for him and happy to see him do well as he always came across as a decent guy

This. I think he was used pretty well while with us, he just couldn't score - he enabled others to score, though. We were in Champions' League form for the 12 months he was with us, so we shouldn't have been changing much that we did.

[Erikse]

6 hours ago, Gawalls said:

All the forest fans I work with say that was down to their previous manager and not him. 

 

With us he looked like a striker stripped of confidence. His form with Burnley that season was under the same manager as previous seasons where he consistenly scored 10+. He was worse under Cooper, while not a coincidence, but it doesn't completely give him a free pass either. Wilson scored 12 in 26 in a the season under Steve Bruce, where he was isolated up top.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 06:25 by Erikse

[TheBrownBottle]

He did his job and helped us stay up.  With Isak and a fit Wilson he was absolutely surplus to requirements, and PSR means we couldn’t leave him as third choice.  Always appeared to be a good pro, and a decent bloke, so good luck to him - but I don’t look enviously Forest’s way.  

[Hanshithispantz]

8 hours ago, Jaqen said:

Felt like he struggled with the pressure of playing for a bigger club. He looked a nervous wreck anytime he got a chance particularly towards the end of his time here.  

Yeah his finishing was absolutely shite and he was sluggish challenging for the ball in the box which made people assume he was falling to bits. 

 

Howe used him well, he improved us a team and the stick the transfer gets is absolutely baffling, but I don't think service was the issue with his goal record here.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:28 by Hanshithispantz

[Checko]

Had a look at his stats, pretty crazy that in 21/2 and 22/3 he scored 9 goals in 67 appearences for Burnley, us and Forest. Last couple of seasons at the ages of 31, 32, 33 he's had his best PL years with 28 goals in 52 PL appearences [28 in 58 appearences all comps].

 

4 goals from 4.9 xG in the league for us from 1773 minutes played (in the league at least). So well within statistical variance. Interesting thing here is how little xG he was getting. We were either not making chances for him or he wasn't getting on the end of stuff, though some of his minutes, particularly near the end, were just to come on and see out games.

 

Last couple of years: 27 league goals from 19.4 xG. This year it's 13 goals from 7.4 x. Not including penalties it's 11 goals from 5.9 xG. He's scored almost twice as many as you'd expect from the chances he's shot from. Crazy clinical. This must be a massive reason for Forest's success this year (along with a sold defence), Pardew-style profiting from an overperforming striker as we did with Ba and Cisse.

 

Seems a good bloke as well so good on him. I guess if there's one place you'd expect Wood to thrive it'd be Forest.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 08:14 by Checko

[Adam]