Nottingham Forest’s rise into the top six of the Championship has been very impressive so far this season. The recent 1-0 win over Derby County in the East Midlands Derby will certainly provide them huge impetus, as they chase promotion back into the Premier League.
Having said that, recent links with Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland don’t come as a surprise. That doesn’t mean that former Bournemouth man Lewis Grabban is doing a bad job at all. It just shows that the striker needs more help to get Forest back in the top tier of English football.
Numbers show that the Scotland international, who is valued at £405k by TransferMarkt, is not a bad player to have at all. So far this season, the 24-year-old has been in supreme form for United in the Scottish Championship.
He has scored as many as 19 times in all competitions for the club, but his league form is bound to raise eyebrows. The former Ayr United man has scored 17 times in 13 appearances in the Championship, also racking up a tally of one assist. That is a very impressive number for any striker in the world.
If that isn’t enough, his tallies in the previous seasons have been nothing short of phenomenal. At Ayr United last season, Shankland scored 24 times in 31 games in the Championship. He also had an assists tally of five.
In the 2017-18 campaign, the 24-year-old scored 26 times for Ayr. He played just 30 games and boasted of an impressive tally of 15 too.
It is very clear that Shankland’s stock has risen superbly over the last few two years. But the way things are going now, it will only increase. He is only 24 and there are nearly too many potential growths in his abilities.
Not just Forest, but any club would lick its lips at the prospect of signing a striker like Shankland. Goalscorers as prolific as him can be very hard to find in football today, even though Sabri Lamouchi already has Grabban in the side.
Grabban has been the Reds’ highest scorer in the Championship with seven goals this season. However, he has shown that he is the club’s only consistent goalscorer, with Rafa Mir and Sammy Ameobi not having done much.
Ameobi has played only twice, while Mir has played only once. The former has scored twice, assisting once. While the latter has a tally of one assist.
But the Championship season is much more intense than the Premier League season – someone like Shankland will know that. Once the international break ends later this month, games will come thick and fast. Clubs will (on average) play three games in the space of ten days.
Grabban is 31 and not getting younger by any means. That is why a move for Shankland will make so much sense.
As mentioned, he is already a Scotland international, having played for the nation in the last international break. He has already scored once and has been called up to the side in this weekend’s break too.
Signing Shankland in January could be massive for Forest. They have scored only 20 goals this season – the sixth-lowest in the Championship so far. It could be a sign of things to come, as the season wears on. But if they sign Shankland, they should get a huge boost in their chances for promotion.