Super Eagles call-up a ‘step back’ for Awoniyi – Nuno Espirito Santo on striker’s game time at Nottingham

Nottingham Forest head coach, Nuno Espirito Santo, has blamed a call-up to the Nigerian national team for Taiwo Awoniyi’s mishaps in front of goal, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 27-year-old striker was Forest’s first choice up-front during the last two seasons, but has lost his place in the starting lineup to New Zealand forward, Chris Wood.

Wood’s impressive form and Awoniyi’s constant injuries has seen the Nigerian struggle for minutes this season. The former Mainz 05 forward has played just 170 minutes across nine Premier League games this season, scoring no goals.

Quizzed about why Awoniyi has been second choice this season, Nottingham boss mentioned Awoniyi was on a steady journey towards full fitness until he got a call-up to play for Nigeria in October.

“It’s his fitness, his confidence and he is looking for his goal. Everything changes in the mindset of a striker when you score; suddenly everything comes. We are waiting for this click. We trust him.

What we have been trying with Taiwo is to increase his game time. Unfortunately, if I look back, going into the previous (October) international break, he played and then immediately went with his national team and played five minutes. That was a step back.

We had him for all of the last international break and he was able to play 60 minutes in a very hard game (against Arsenal). It was a very physical game against tough centre halves, and he did very well.

We will try to keep progressing on that aspect with T, because we need all the players. T and Chris are the specific strikers that we have,” Nuno Espirito Santo said in quotes revealed by Nottingham Post.

Forest sealed a narrow 1-0 win over Ipswich Town yesterday as they continue to press into the Premier League top-six, with the hope of securing European competition spots when the season ends.