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After being heavily linked with Nottingham Forest last season, one year on Liam Delap has joined the club, who just so happen to have a Head Coach that was also interested in him after his 12 goals with relegated Ipswich Town.
With Chris Wood having to look after a knee problem that will remain with him for the rest of his career, and Igor Jesus an unprolific hard worker who is perhaps more suited to a deeper role, Delap joins a club desperately in need of a focal point not only in the coming seasons, but also immediately.
Delap will need to look no further than some other players who have made the move from Big Six clubs to Forest in recent seasons, and then gone on to rebuild their careers either here or elsewhere. Anthony Elanga had two productive seasons before a big money move to Newcastle, Callum Hudson-Odoi has proven he is a Premier League player again after a cut price move from Chelsea, and Neco Williams is one of the few players remaining from Forest’s first Premier League campaign.
The stage is set for Delap to not only rebuild his career at The City Ground, but also to rediscover the form he showed at Ipswich Town and try to force his way in to an England set up full of aging striker options ahead of a ‘home’ Euros.
Delap’s Data & How He’ll Fit
Firstly, it’s important to note that Delap joins a set up with some familiar faces. Counting games from U18 level and above, only Cole Palmer has taken the field with Delap more than Forest’s James McAtee - together they combined for 11 goals in 60 appearances across all competitions & age groups.
He also spent his first Premier League season with Forest’s previous record signing, Omari Hutchinson. Although their partnership wasn’t quite so prolific (just 2 goals assisted by Hutchinson for Delap), they still combined well, with Hutchinson creating 8 total chances for a side that lacked firepower and had to do lots of defending in an ultimately unsuccessful campaign.
But how does he compare to Forest’s existing options, and another player loosely linked with Forest in recent transfer windows in Jean Phillipe Mateta? Let’s have a look and find out.
Mateta, Wood & Delap (including 2 seasons in the Championship) have 4 season’s worth of data to look at. Forest’s other option in Igor Jesus has 2 season’s worth of data - last season at Forest, and the first part of 2025 with Botafogo. This data excludes penalties.
The first thing to notice here is that in general Liam Delap has a low xG per shot compared to these other options. There’s two reasons for this - the first being that in general he has been in sides that have struggled to create too much. Secondly, he is a forward who is more than happy to take a shot from low-quality areas - this is a trait he shares with Igor Jesus, which is something that might worry you, but let’s dispel those worries.
If we look at their conversion rates in league football, we can see that Delap has a higher conversion rate than Igor Jesus’ in each season apart from his most recent one with Chelsea, where he scored just 1 of 36 shots. There’s probably a decent explanation for this though.