Head coach Steve Cooper says he had no qualms about throwing new signing Chris Wood straight into the first XI for his Nottingham Forest debut.
Barely 24 hours after he had put pen to paper for the Reds, the on-loan Newcastle United striker was in the starting line-up against Bournemouth. He played 75 minutes as the visitors came from behind to clinch a 1-1 draw.
Wood is cup-tied for Forest’s next two games, when they will face Manchester United in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, meaning he cannot play again until the home match against Leeds United on February 5. Cooper believes the experience the 31-year-old brings with him to the City Ground can be invaluable to his team’s battle for survival.
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“As soon as I knew he was definitely available, we were very clear about it,” the Welshman said of his decision to start Wood. “It’s given the dressing room a boost.
“Taiwo (Awoniyi) is not available, and I just felt we needed a bit more experience up there. Morgan (Gibbs-White) has been playing a little bit higher, but he went back into the no.10, because I knew Gustavo (Scarpa) needed a bit of a breather and to come on as a substitute.
“For us, it was a no-brainer. We’re really pleased he’s got the first game out of the way, because he can’t play now for a couple of weeks, with being cup-tied.
“He’s got a couple of weeks where we can really get to work with him, talk about our identity and the role we want him to play. I didn’t want to overload him with information in 24 hours.
“I know he’s experienced. We thought he’d just play a little bit off excitement and adrenaline. He’s really excited to be here - and we’re really excited to have him - so we just wanted him to be just enthused to go and play.
“He’s seen the away supporters and the noise they make as well. It’s a special club to play for, and we’re all lucky to play and work here, so it’s good we’ve got him.
“In the future, he will get a lot more balls, a lot more service and probably a lot more space. But what you saw is he occupies more than one defender, which then means the space opens up for the likes of Morgan and Brennan. That’s really important we’ve got that in our game, because we need to have a variety of attacks.”
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