Nottingham Forest face Newcastle United tomorrow night and it’s fair to presume that Emmanuel Dennis wants to play. The 25-year-old player has been spotted in training scoring a quality goal during a training match.
The Nigerian hasn’t really settled at Forest. When he signed there were some murmurs that he wasn’t really a Steve Cooper-sought signing and his game time has been restricted.
Dennis has featured just 13 times in the Premier League during 2022/23. He’s started just three of those appearances, scoring one goal back in October against Aston Villa.
The versatile forward was signed from Watford for £20 million in the summer. He scored 10 Premier League goals last season and on the face of things it didn’t look like a bad signing at all.
Dennis has struggled though and he’s not started any game since the 1st February. Then he was down to start on the bench against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup but an injury to Jesse Lingard in the warm-up saw him promoted.
The former Genk striker has been coming off the bench a little more often of late. He looked particularly impressive during a 3-1 defeat against Tottenham last week and now he will crave a start.
Dennis wants to play and training ground goal might have impressed Cooper
The forward is getting some unfair criticism from some supporters. Okay, Dennis doesn’t always have the best body language but he was arguably the team’s best player against Tottenham.
Given a drab first-half performance in that game, the bar was pretty low. But, he still came on and tried instantly to get Forest back playing on the front foot during the game.
His training ground goal was outstanding. After producing some trickery is often associated with Dennis he fired an unstoppable effort towards goal, with his strike hitting the bar, bouncing down and then rippling the net.
Forest haven’t won for five Premier League games. As a result, Dennis has to be edging closer to a start and given his exploits in training perhaps one is on the horizon.