Igor Jesus

Key strength: Link-up play

Target man

In the suffocating pressure-cooker of a Premier League relegation fight, Nottingham Forest cling to survival in 17th place—their DLDWW form offering slender hope that the drop can be avoided. Rising above the chaos is Igor Jesus, a 25-year-old Brazilian striker who has become Nuno Espírito Santo's unlikely salvation. With 12 goals and 4 assists across 39 appearances this season, Jesus delivers a goal contribution every 148 minutes—an exceptional strike rate for a club scrapping at the bottom. His €25 million market value increasingly looks like astute business. Operating as a classic target man with devastating link-up play, he transforms scraps into golden chances, chesting down long balls for Morgan Gibbs-White's late surges or combining with Callum Hudson-Odoi's trickery on the left flank. What truly distinguishes Jesus is his ice-cold temperament: zero cards across 2,361 minutes of high-stakes football reveals a discipline that defies the tension surrounding him. With Forest's Premier League status hanging by a thread, their Brazilian marksman isn't merely their best player—he's their lifeline. Every goal feels like another rope thrown to a drowning side desperately swimming toward safety.