Nuno: Awoniyi needs to score a goal to fire up his confidence

Nottingham Forest coach, Espirito Nuno Santos believes Nigeria striker, Taiwo Awoniyi needs to score his first goal of the season to get back to the form he brought into the club in the 2022/23 season when he scored 11 goals and managed to hit the back of the net six times last season despite injuries that ensured he missed 18 games, 16 of them through injuries.

This term, the Nigerian has started just two of the nine appearances he has made in the Premier League and is yet to either score or provide an assist.

Nuno is however confident the 27-year-old will get back scoring very soon once he nets his first of the season.

‘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 to do with T is to increase his game time. Unfortunately, if I look back, going into the October international break, he played 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 physical game 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 at the specific strikers we have,’ the Nottingham Forest gaffer told Nottinghamshire Live in an interview after the 1-0 defeat of Ipswich Town at the City Ground last weekend.