Wood not aiming to rival ´formidable´ Haaland for Golden Boot

Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood is not aiming to rival the “formidable” Erling Haaland for the Premier League’s Golden Boot after netting a brace against Leicester City.

Wood took his tally to seven for the season with two second-half goals in Forest’s 3-1 win over rivals Leicester, after Ryan Yates saw his opener cancelled out by Jamie Vardy.

The 32-year-old’s double saw him move level with Stan Collymore on 22 Premier League goals for Forest, with only Bryan Roy (24) scoring more for the club in the competition.

Only Manchester City’s Haaland (10) has scored more times than Wood this term, though the New Zealander was not getting carried away with his fine start to the campaign.

“I just want to keep scoring as many as I can. He’s [Haaland] a very formidable man, and he’s probably going to score 30 goals this season,” Wood said.

“He’s a very formidable man to chase. He’s {Nuno Espirito Santo] come in and put an emphasis on putting the ball in the box. He’s worked on that in the training pitch.”

Seven goals in nine @premierleague games.

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— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) October 25, 2024

It’s been a remarkable turnaround for Wood, who has flourished under Nuno Espirito Santo since his arrival at the City Ground.

Since Nuno’s first game in charge of Forest in December 2023, only Haaland (18) has scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League than Wood (17).

“It’s consistency with what Nuno’s been working on. We got better and better last season but we also conceded poor goals at times,” Wood continued.

“I think consistency is the biggest thing. I wouldn’t say it fuelled us, we conceded a lot of set-piece goals and we worked at that and we’ve got to keep going.”

Nuno also sung the praises of his in-form forward, saying Wood deserves all the praise he is receiving at the moment.

“He’s done an amazing job. He’s very honest and he gives everything on the pitch for us. We are delighted and we want to continue. Chris deserves his plaudits,” Nuno said.

For Leicester, meanwhile, it marked a tough encounter for Steve Cooper, who was facing his former side for the first time since leaving the club almost a year ago.

Coming into the game on the back of consecutive wins, the Foxes’ defensive lapses were ruthlessly punished by Forest.

James Justin’s poor clearance allowed Yates to open the scoring, before Harry Winks’ poor pass and Wout Faes’ mistimed header were gobbled up by Wood.

“It’s self-inflicted, no doubt about that, and it’s on us. We all have to take responsibility for how the game panned out,” Cooper said.

“We made poor mistakes for the goals, no doubt about it, and we were punished for it but I just think conceding so early on in the second half was obviously not a good thing.

“We have to take responsibility for it. It’s a setback after winning a few games coming into this.

“We have to accept it, completely on us and me and we’ve got punished for the poor giveaways on the goals.”

Full-time.#LEINFO pic.twitter.com/iSkLIopOlu

— Leicester City (@LCFC) October 25, 2024