Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper is confident there is still plenty more to come from summer signing Morgan Gibbs-White.
The attacker has been a regular in the starting XI and has had moments of real promise since his move to the City Ground from Wolverhampton Wanderers for an initial £25m. On Monday night, he set up the opener for Emmanuel Dennis with a delightful free-kick as the Reds drew 1-1 with Aston Villa.
That result on the banks of the Trent ended a five-match losing streak for Forest. It has been a tough start to the season for Cooper’s side - both as a collective and for individua.ls - as they adapt to the step up to the Premier League and deal with the challenges of a summer overhaul.
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Gibbs-White was the manager’s top target in the transfer window. The pair have worked together before, at Swansea City, where he had a loan spell, and with England Under-17s. And the Welshman is certain the 22-year-old will keep getting better.
“He’s such a young player, and there’s always more to come from young players. This is probably his first regular run in the Premier League,” said Cooper.
“Obviously, he had a regular run last year at Sheffield United (on loan), and we tried to give him it at Swansea the season before, but he got injured. But this is his first run in Premier League football, like Neco (Williams), who found himself in and out of the Liverpool team, and like Brennan (Johnson).
“These young guys are experiencing the Premier League on a week to week basis, starting games, for the first time. It’s going to be a transition period, like it is for everybody, because of the make-up of the squad.
“But we’re really happy with Morgan. We know how good he’s going to be for us, and how good he is for us.
“He got the assist with the free-kick. He will make a difference for us in games.
“I was pleased with Dennis, scoring on his first start. And Brennan had good moments, as he does.
“These little individual things are the things that are going on with the bigger picture of being back in the Premier League, bad run, trying to improve, all the signings and becoming a team. Us, as a coaching team, have got these daily individual programmes with the players where all the stories are a bit different. It’s great, we’re enjoying it.”
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