Neither Anthony Elanga’s teammates nor head coach Steve Cooper were surprised by how Anthony Elanga scored his first goal for Nottingham Forest.
The summer acquisition made a strong debut for the Reds against Chelsea, securing three points after coolly gliding the ball past Robert Sanchez after being set up by Taiwo Awoniyi. He has a history of consistently finding the back of the net during practice.
Cooper has been integrating Elanga gradually since he left Manchester United, keeping in mind the attacker’s youth. The fact that he has come on as a substitute in four of his five games thus far hasn’t prevented him from having an impact on matches, as was the case in the capital.
However, the Reds manager is confident that the 21-year-old has a promising future at the City Ground. He believes Elanga can build on his goal at Stamford Bridge and establish himself as an important member of the Garibaldi.
Cooper remarked, “He’s a good finisher, Anthony.” I frequently receive questions about him since, for a young player, he is pretty well-known and comes from United. We want young, hungry players like that on the team because we know we can develop them.
He is already a tremendously talented player, but he will grow into a key member of our team. Simply a process, that. Days like these will also be helpful to him.
“What we’ve observed about him in training is that he finishes incredibly well. Although Taiwo has been consistently scoring goals for us, you also need other attacking players who have the ability to score. Anthony certainly seems to possess that.
The 1-0 victory over the Blues by Forest was their first road win in the Premier League since January. Cooper’s team has made improving their away performance a top objective for this season after only securing one victory on the road in the previous campaign.
