Odds on Jesus (current Brazil international) starts against Midtjylland?
Niche Cache's thoughts.
Igor Jesus’ mobility and energy may be great for the Europas but back in the Premier League the physicality and experience of Chris Wood remain as valuable as ever. That’s how it turned out as Nottm Forest hosted Sunderland three days later with Chris Wood named to start as one of five changes from the Real Betis game. There’s nothing he can do about people making assumptions about his fit for his new manager. There’s nothing he can do about the goals his deputy scored in games he didn’t play. But there was plenty he could do about his own performance in response to those things.
Niche Cache's thoughts.
Igor Jesus’ mobility and energy may be great for the Europas but back in the Premier League the physicality and experience of Chris Wood remain as valuable as ever. That’s how it turned out as Nottm Forest hosted Sunderland three days later with Chris Wood named to start as one of five changes from the Real Betis game. There’s nothing he can do about people making assumptions about his fit for his new manager. There’s nothing he can do about the goals his deputy scored in games he didn’t play. But there was plenty he could do about his own performance in response to those things.
Which is why it’s devastating to say that Chris Wood clunked it against Sunderland. Given a chance in his familiar role as the target man up top, Wood had six shots and only put one on target as Sunderland won 1-0. That’s more shots in this game than he had in any match last season (including when he scored his hat-trick against Brighton). One of the astonishing parts of his 2024-25 goal haul was how incredibly efficient he was, massively exceeding his Expected Goals and getting a high percentage of his efforts on target (despite not actually taking very many shots). This was the opposite of that just like how Ange Postecoglous is the opposite of Nuno Espirito Santo.
A couple of those shots were nothing chances that nobody’s going to blame him for. But he had one glittering back-post header in particular with ten minutes to go that he spurned, with his team trailing 1-0 against a promoted team, which he simply had to do better with. Especially when his position is already under pressure. It was painful. Here’s a summary of those six shots...
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23’ – Neco Williams whips in an early chipped cross recovering the second phase from a corner which lands right on Chris Wood’s head eight yards out in the middle of the goal but he powered it wide
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27’ – Opportunistic glancing header leaning backwards for a Dan Ndoye cross that bounced comfortably wide though wasn’t far from meeting a Forest foot running in at the back post
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45+3’ – Back post header from a Bakwa corner kick with the last act of the half, put into a pretty good area but Wood was leaning back on it under pressure and headed way too high
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80’ – Omari Hutchison went past his man on the right wing and whipped a shin-height cross into the middle where some super movement from Wood got himself in front of the defender at the near post, his side-footed shot fizzing towards goal but parried away by the keeper
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80’ – Follow up to the previous effort, barely made contact with it
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81’ – The golden one... another cross from Hutchison, this one struck hard with beautiful shape towards Wood at the far post where he intercepted it perfectly yet pushed his header wide from six yards out
There are other factors at play here because part of Woodsy’s success last season was his combination with his fellow forwards, especially the wingers. But Anthony Elanga has been sold to Newcastle United, Callum Hudson-Odoi is in and out of the side, and even Morgan Gibbs-White has seen his role fluctuate under Postecoglou... those four were the main men under Nuno but Wood was the lone soldier of the quartet picked to start the Sunderland game. You could see the intent from all of those new guys to feed crosses towards Wood but the connections weren’t the same. The understanding and the timing aren’t there yet.