Taiwo Awoniyi admission made as Nuno sets out plan for Nottingham Forest striker

Latest Nottingham Forest news as Nuno Espirito Santo’s Reds prepare to face Ipswich Town at the City Ground

Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo is confident Taiwo Awoniyi can get back to his best – the Nottingham Forest striker just needs a goal to give him a boost.

Awoniyi is yet to find the back of the net so far this term but has also been struggling for regular game time. Forcing his way past top-scorer Chris Wood in the pecking order has been tough and he made only his second Premier League start of the campaign when he lined up against Arsenal last weekend.

The lack of minutes, for both club and country, have not helped the 27-year-old’s cause as he tries to reach full fitness and sharpness after missing a chunk of pre-season. But Nuno ensured the time was spent wisely when Awoniyi was not part of the Nigeria squad for this month’s international camp, and the forward then played more than an hour in the 3-0 loss to the Gunners.

“It’s his fitness, his confidence and he is looking for his goal,” Nuno said of Awoniyi. “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 with T is to increase his game time. Unfortunately, if I look back, going into the previous (October) international break, he played and 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 very physical game against tough centre halves, and he did very well.