Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper has explained how he felt that Taiwo Awoniyi could cause problems for £75 million Liverpool star Virgil van Dijk on Saturday.
The Reds stunned the Champions League finalists by winning the clash 1-0.
Awoniyi proved the game’s match-winner, tapping into the net on 55 minutes after some good work by Steve Cook.
The 25-year-old proved a constant menace to the Liverpool defence and it was an eye-catching return to the starting line-up.
Awoniyi has scored three goals now this season and is the club’s leading goalscorer in the Premier League.
He signed for the Reds in the summer, making a £17.5 million transfer from Bundesliga outfit Union Berlin.
Cooper has opened up on the thought process behind starting Awoniyi during Saturday’s amazing victory.
He told The Daily Mail: “T worked so hard. We played him today as we thought he could be a handful for Virgil van Dijk. He really proved to be that and he deserved his goal.”
Awoniyi has been forced to wait patiently for a chance in the Forest team.
Cooper has been striving to find a winning formula after a summer that saw 22 new players added to the ranks.
Cooper felt Awoniyi could cause problems for Van Dijk
The Forest head coach wasn’t wrong, was he?
Van Dijk and Joe Gomez might have felt they’d get the afternoon off against a Forest side devoid of confidence.
This was a different Forest though and everything just seemed to click a little bit.
Awoniyi was the heartbeat of everything good about Forest going forward and he thoroughly deserved his goal.
There is a real argument to suggest that the man who scored 18 Bundesliga goals last season deserves a real run of games.
Forest now have a big result to their name in the Premier League and they must use this as a catalyst.