Return of the target man

Chris Wood began 2024-25 in the goalscoring form of his life, hitting double figures before Christmas as Nottingham Forest gatecrashed the Premier League's top four. He tells FFT how New Zealand toughened him up, and why he left Newcastle

- Miles Starforth

Chris Wood is flying the flag for the classic English centre-forward - 16 years after arriving in the country.

Wood isn't a UK native, having been raised in Auckland, New Zealand before joining West Bromwich Albion in his teens, but his targetman style has always been quintessentially British. His form this term, starting with 10 goals in his first 15 Premier League games, has been heralded as a throwback.

In an era when many traditional centre-forwards have been replaced by false nines, while in-demand player profiles skew ever younger, Wood hit the best form of his life aged 32. His goals transformed Nuno Espirito Santo's Nottingham Forest from relegation battlers into a team that had soared to fourth in the table by mid-December.

New Zealand's all-time leading men's scorer is also just two wins away from leading his country back into the World Cup after 16 years away. The All Whites host Fiji in March in Oceania's qualifying semi-final, with a potential final against New Caledonia or Tahiti three days later.

But first, Wood has an appointment with FFT inside the analysis suite at Nottingham Forest's Wilford Lane training ground. The room is usually used by Nuno & Co to devise cunning plans for Premier League matches; now their star striker is providing the analysis, on his rise to the top of English football.

What’s the reason for your success in front of goal this season?

It’s tough to put it down to one thing. It’s mostly been down to playing week in, week out, and the belief that the manager instils in me. It’s nice being able to play under a manager like Nuno: he’s a manager that backs you and you buy into him. We were very solid for the first 10 games of this season and did extremely well. Obviously, when it was great, we started off fantastically. It’s nice that it’s gone well, too, but there’s still a long way that we should achieve.