Chris Wood (Nottingham Forest | England)

#notapremierleaguequalityplayer

Wow, With him and Winnie 6 points for the weekend is blimmin good. Go the Kiwis!

From an article on Football 365 about how Burnley are playing this season. Combined with Phil Neville's comments where he praised Wood, he's certainly doing a good job of becoming a PL striker

"The arrival of Chris Wood from Leeds to play the lone frontman has also had a significant effect. When he signed, I assumed he was just another Turf Moor homage to the days of George Beel. But he’s much more than a mere revival act. He combines Ashley Barnes’ movement with Sam Vokes’ skills, and while that won’t win you the Ballon d’Or, it makes for a perfectly serviceable Premier League number nine. Big Dunc was on the touchline at Goodison on Sunday, and may very well have nodded his head once or twice"

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/nz-teams/97...

Barton speaking highly of Wood. Not sure if that's a good or bad thing...

""Credit to them. It would have been easy to pass the boat and gamble on a foreign player from a strange league and with a strange passport."

Confirmed: Joey Barton is still a fudgeing idiot.

Is Wood a dual citizen? He's been there since he was 17, owns a home etc... so technically may not count as a foreign player.

I actually understand the comment - how many players from overseas leagues have gone across to the Premiership and struggled - whereas he at least would have some idea, albeit at a lower level.

I think he qualified as a Brit through ancestry.

I'm not sure how that follows from his comment?

a significant portion of premier league today was devoted to analysing burnley and the impact of chris wood in particular

phil neville and matt holland were full of praise for wood, his work rate, movement, strength, pace and persistance. the analysis was from the everton game; a game in which he didn't score, but evidently made a big impression on neville

according to neville, 15 million was a bargain

Great stuff. But...pace?

Deceptively quick for a big man (and in general), gives EPL defenders chasing back all sorts of headaches. In fact he normally reaches the over hit long balls first, and is strong enough to either win a corner or hold up play long enough for the midfielders to catch up.

So we are saying he is a genuine premier league striker?

Nah, I believe YF forum posters over an ex EPL defender who came up against Premier league strikers in 505 games. 

Yeah, what would he know?

Pele said Nicky Barmby was as good as Zidane. Being an ex-pro doesn't necessarily mean you are a great judge of talent.

Although I do think Wood has the goods. Just pointing out the problem in the "Phil would know" argument. If the fact that a PL club spent millions of pounds to make him a starter isn't going to persuade people, do we think Phil Neville's opinion will? I mean, clubs do make mistakes but a lot more goes into scouting players than one ex-pro's opinion

^^ miserable sod ;-(

Hey, I said I thought he had the goods, and I have been saying that for a while. I even had a bet last season with RR that he'd be in the PL this season. All I'm saying is that the best argument to prove he's PL quality is the fact he's a starter in the PL, not what a pundit says.

And Wood scores to equalise against West Ham! 

At this point anyone who thinks he isn't EPL quality is a fudgeing muppet.

Edit: Finishes 1 all. West Ham probably the happier side at the end, playing 70 minutes with 10 men after Andy Carroll recieved 2 yellows in under 2 minutes for having over vigorous elbows. Wood had a decent first half, heavily involved and very unlucky not to win a penalty for Burnley after being clearly taken out by Hart in the box. Vokes made an entrance after the break, and for the first 20 minutes of the second half Wood was anonymous as he seemed to be occupying the same space as Barnes and it wasn't clear what the roles for each of the two strikers was supposed to be. After about 65 minutes, Wood started dropping noticeably deeper and became involved in most of Burnley's plays moving forward showing some fantastic holding play to get the ball out wide to make space for the ball to come back in again for the three big men in the middle. Eventually, and it was coming, Wood was able to latch on to one of these balls in from out wide and slammed his header into the bottom left corner leaving Hart no chance.

Nice header that.A little push and shove with Winston after the goal as well.Both booked.

He is carving up. Good on the lad

4 goals in 7 so far for Burnley.

More endorsement, this time from Football 365's latest "Premier League Winners and Losers" column

Chris Wood
A late equaliser against Tottenham, the winner against Crystal Palace and a late equaliser against West Ham. Wood may have cost Burnley a pretty packet, but he’s directly earned them five points in seven weeks at Turf Moor. Keep it up and he’ll soon look cheap.

Uh Oh.Off injured after 20 mins.

Just after making the two City CB's look foolish, picks up an injury and is subbed in the 19th minute. Not good!

Fudge, hope it's not serious. Without him or Reid there's no way we can beat Peru

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo :(

If Wood is out for the WC playoffs I say we have close to no chance...

Any news on his injury?

From the Burnley FC website

Sounds like he's gone off before the hamstring went, but it's also likely he'll miss a week or two as a precaution. 

any word on the injury front?

Quoted- And while the extra couple of days could make a difference to his availability, boss Sean Dyche said: “Woody has a chance, but he is touch and go for Monday.

“He’s responded well to treatment, and it’s not a deep-seated problem, but we have to make sure with him.”

This should make him okay for the Peru games.

As long as they don't rush him in and he injures himself again, then we are well and truly fudged.

I really hope he doesn't play on Monday or at least he doesn't play until fully recovered.

Let's not forget he'll be spending most of the FIFA window sitting on airplanes and that won't be good for your hammy - business class or not!

Not in the matchday squad today for Burnley - both good news but also worrying news that he didn't even make the bench

Radio Sport NZ said he is clared to play.

Like, he is clared fit?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/teams/burnley/to...

Interesting stats from Burnley goalscorers...Wood sitting at 149mins per goal and having over twice the shots of any other goal scorer

I know it's early days but still an interesting break down, with Wood certainly being involved a lot in the chances Burnley have created

Starting verus Saints

Did 65 min. His sub Vokes scored the winner

Wood not starting or on the bench.