Steve Cooper
Steve Cooper says Manchester City’s goal at Nottingham Forest should have been disallowed for a ‘clear foul’ as he outlined his tactical plan to take a point from the Blues. City were on top in the first half at the City Ground and took the lead through Bernardo Silva’s sweet first-half goal after Phil Foden’s corner was cleared. A number of good chances came and went for City, and they were made to pay for their wastefulness as Chris Wood converted at the back post in the final ten minutes to earn a draw. Cooper was full of praise for his side at full time as Forest made it eight games unbeaten at home in the Premier League, and he had criticism for the Video Assistant Referee in allowing City’s goal that could have ensured Wood’s late goal was a winner.
Steve Cooper said: “I’m disappointed with the goal, but I’m really disappointed with VAR because it’s a clear foul anywhere else on the pitch. Joe Worrall was being kicked in the face. VAR have to pick up on that. I’m not going to deny City had all the ball and a lot of chances but you need a bit of luck. For me VAR has let the referee down there. Of all weekends, they [VAR] needed a good one. We all want it, to help the game, so we are disappointed with that – but loads of gratitude to the players for sticking to the plan.”
Regarding Forest’s defensive tactics that kept them in the game until their equaliser, Cooper admitted they changed their usual approach and specifically targeted City’s left-back area – where Bernardo was again deployed as a roaming defensive midfielder in front of a back three.
Steve Cooper added: “We played a bit lower, more compact, hit them on the counter – particularly on their left-hand side. We got the goal there. We played with an extra midfielder, an experienced midfield, and we wanted to contain them. They’re brilliant, they are incredible. If you try and match them from a football sense they’ll get the better of you. There’s no shame in that. You don’t say before the game, but you’re playing probably the best team in the world at domestic level and you have to sacrifice the ideals to get something out of it. We put a plan in place to stay in it for as long as we could. We wanted that one moment to try and get in and it was a great goal. It’s a positive result and hopefully one that will help. I thought we got away with it when Haaland missed. While we were edging forward they got more chances. If we were more open, they’re more dangerous City. It started to go that way, we run the risk. They miss good chances, but we had good defending. We got our moment, a great goal, and we saw it out. We did something different tactically, I asked them to buy into and we did.”
