Taiwo Awoniyi came off the bench to score against Arsenal on Nottingham Forest’s first Premier League game of the 2023/2024 season in a 2-1 loss.
Nottingham Forest coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, has revealed he had no plans of bringing Taiwo Awoniyi on in the team’s 2-1 loss to Arsenal last night, Soccernet.ng reports
Nuno, 50, took over the reins at Forest last month after Steve Cooper was sacked. The Portuguese won three of his first four games, defeating Manchester United, Newcastle, and Blackpool.
The new manager was without Taiwo Awoniyi as the 26-year-old was out of action after having surgery on a persistent groin problem which kept him away from the AFCON 2023 tournament with Nigeria.
In his post-match interview, the former Tottenham Hotspur coach mentioned he was happy to have Taiwo Awoniyi back with the squad, but didn’t expect to introduce him so soon.
‘It is a positive to have him back. It was not our plan to play him for so many minutes because he has just had two or three sessions with the team, but unfortunately, due to the situation with Chris, we decided to put him in. It is a positive that he played. He had minutes, he scored, he worked,” the manager said in quotes revealed by Nottinghamshire Live.
Chris Wood had to be replaced by Awoniyi at the start of the second half in what looked like a hamstring injury for the Kiwi. With Origi out after picking up a muscle injury, Awoniyi’s return turned out to be right on time for the Reds.
“It is important for us to have as many options as we can. It is imperative to have two strikers available because it is fundamental for our game. Taiwo had two training sessions. Anthony had one training session. Felipe had one training session. We decided to bring them back into the group just to be around, not to give them as many minutes as we did. They were not a part of the plan,” the manager added.
Nottingham Forest are currently ranked 16th in the Premier League table and are just two points above Everton who are in 18th place.
