Head coach Steve Cooper is excited by the potential of Nottingham Forest midfielder Danilo as he continues to show what he can do in the Premier League.
Cooper was keen to manage the 22-year-old carefully when he made the move from Palmeiras in January, easing him in gradually and even not giving him minutes for a spell. That patience paid off and the Brazilian has now clearly got to grips with English football, having put in some standout displays and scored in three successive games in recent weeks.
He is one of a number of talented youngsters in the Reds squad, alongside the likes of Brennan Johnson, Morgan Gibbs-White and Neco Williams. But although Danilo and his teammates still have their best years ahead of them, Cooper wants the immediate focus to be on putting in another fine performance against Arsenal on Saturday as Forest look to secure survival.
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“He’s a fantastic lad to work with,” the Welshman said of Danilo. “He wants to learn and wants to do well. He’s a very likeable guy. He’s very well liked amongst the guys.
“He’s learning English but is still at the very start, so a lot of the communication with him is through translation. It’s helped a lot having some of the other guys speak Portuguese; Willy Boly is a good Portuguese speaker, (Gustavo) Scarpa speaks English, Renan Lodi’s English has come on so much and we have some members of staff who speak Portuguese, so it’s helped a lot of relationships.
“It’s good to see him doing well. It was one of those where you could see he is a talent and there’s lots of other aspects around him which made for being a Premier League footballer. But, as always, especially at his age, there is a period of getting to know the league and getting to know the country.
“It was really important we managed his game time early on. In some of the early games, you could see it was definitely a new thing for him and we had to be careful with him, but we could see every day in training that he was getting closer and closer to being Premier League match ready.
“I don’t mean that he wasn’t capable, I mean that he just had to understand how the Premier League and English football is for his age. He has definitely gone through that transitional period and has delivered some excellent performances.
“But as all young players learn as they play these games, it’s not about what’s just been, it’s about what’s next - and he has to play well on Saturday. We’ll be pushing him as much as we can, like all the other boys, to be at the level we know he can play at.
“We are really enjoying working with him. As much as he is having a really good impact now, I think the really exciting bit with him, Morgan, Brennan, Neco and some of the guys who are a little bit older is there is still loads of growth in their game.”
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