Nottingham Forest have been looking for extra attacking impetus throughout the January window, with Brentford’s Yoane Wissa one of the more exciting options.
Given the number of links to forwards in the news, Nuno Espirito Santo is clearly looking for support for the prolific Chris Wood.
Wood became Forest’s Premier League record scorer this season, but his 13 goals put him far clear of Morgan Gibbs-White with four goals as the main two goal threats in the Forest squad.
One of the more persistently linked names has been Forest’s pursuit of Yuri Alberto who has an impressive scoring record in Brazil, but doubts will always persist as to whether such form could be translated to English football.
This doubt would not be present if Forest were to sign Wissa, though. However, Brentford boss Thomas Frank has already made the club’s January plans quite clear which could impact Forest’s interest in Wissa.
- READ MORE: Who is Yoane Wissa? The 12-goal Brentford ace who Nottingham Forest are chasing in January
Brentford’s quiet January plans may impact Nottingham Forest
January is a notoriously difficult window to get any significant deals done, leading to Brentford seemingly looking to avoid the window entirely.
According to The Standard in December: “The Bees are instead focused on the summer window and will only enter the market next month if they suffer fresh and serious long-term injuries which force their hand.”
More specifically, the report said: “Thomas Frank and the club’s recruitment team believe the priority must instead be helping players who have joined Brentford in 2024 to bed in.”
Evidently, Brentford aren’t looking at any incoming signings in January which would make convincing them of any deal that would bring Wissa to the City Ground a difficult one.
Evangelos Marinakis may want to test their resolve, though, as Wissa would provide the perfect alternative attributes to Wood up front.
Chris Wood and Yoane Wissa would complement each other
Wood’s clinical target man style compliments the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi and Anthony Elanga perfectly and Wissa could still provide a similar style up front.
Given the height difference, it’s no surprise that Wood wins more aerial duels than Wissa, but the Congolese forward still wins 47% of his duels per 90 minutes, slightly more than Wood’s 40.2% success rate.
Like Wood, Wissa also isn’t much of a creative force for his side but he does boast more impressive passing stats than the Forest man with an 81.2% pass accuracy compared to Wood’s 63.8%.
Wissa is also comparable to Wood in terms of retaining the ball, boasting a dispossession rate of just 0.77 per match, similar to Wood’s 0.54.
Marinakis didn’t want to disrupt the Forest squad in January with too many deals that would alter their impressive flow, so a signing like Wissa who offers near identical attributes to Wood with marginal gains in some areas could truly suit Espirito Santo and his Forest coaching staff.
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