Steve Cooper gave his last press conference as Nottingham Forest head coach after the 2-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last Friday. The Reds showed no shortage of fight but were punished for a clear lack of quality. It proved to be Cooper’s downfall, with Evangelos Marinakis confirming the head coach’s sacking late on Tuesday afternoon. After the game, Cooper reflected on his team’s performance, the support he received from the crowd and the run the Reds are on. It would prove to be the last time he addressed the media as Forest head coach. Below is a look at what he had to say.
On the game…
“It’s a loss and any loss is always disappointing and will always write the narrative. We have to accept that. We were OK defensively in the game, but we came away from the stuff we were doing well (for the goal). If you do that against a team like Spurs, with the wealth of talent they have at the top end of the pitch, they will punish you. That is what we’re not doing at the other end of the pitch – not just today, but in a number of games now. We’ve had enough moments around their box to play with a bit more quality. We’re just not showing enough quality with final passes or finishes. The disallowed goal is disappointing. We’d worked on that kind of cross from Neco all week, but three of the guys are offside. Again, we are not really showing the right decision-making or composure in that area to make a difference. The second goal is just a real momentum killer. It is something that you can not give away in that sort of fashion at any level, and then there’s the timing of it as well. We were having a good phase in the game so to give away a goal like that was a killer for us, in terms of trying to get back into the game. I’ve got no complaints with the commitment from the boys. The general performance level was fine. It wasn’t a bad performance, but what we are not doing is managing real defining moments that are costing goals and not creating chances to score goals. That is something we have got to strive to be better at.”
On Matt Turner’s mistake for the second goal…
“The players will support him. But at the same time we all have to own the things we can do better. Sometimes they will be individual moments, sometimes they will be collective things. Now is not the time for anyone to delve too much into it. But we will review things with the players as we do. But, of course, it is not something that should happen at this level.”
On the support from the crowd…
“The job means the world to me. It always has done. I wish it was different, in terms of the results that we’re getting. I know there are talking points around me. I wish that wasn’t the case and we were talking about more points and more wins and the players. We’re a very together club at the moment. We have to stay together. Whoever is doing whatever role and job here, we have to stay together because any progress we’ve made here has been built on togetherness. The fans were brilliant today. I think they saw a team that gave everything. But not only should you give everything, you need to show quality as well and not give away silly goals, which is what we did.”
On whether Forest’s form is close to turning…
“It’s hard to be too positive, because you can’t with the run of results. Fulham was a complete outlier and will speak for itself – and rightly so – but all the other losses, we look at it and think things like we should have made that pass and not given that second goal away. But at the same time, that is the level we play at. We can’t carry on being shoulda, woulda, coulda. It’s got to be yep, we’ve made that pass, we’ve not given away that goal, we’ve stuck to the plan for 90 minutes. I do look deeper than the results and I do see the positives. But I can’t shout about that too much because the results rightly write most of the narrative. The most important thing is to really believe in the players. The moment anyone loses belief, the players will feel it and then they won’t be as alive as they need to be when they are playing. We’ve got some young players that need backing and need reassuring. Of course we have a demanding environment and there is nothing fluffy about what we do, but at the same time this is an era where you need people to feel good about themselves and back themselves. At the same time, we have to face up to the fact that we have to do better. To do that, in my opinion, the first thing to do is to recognise it, own it and take responsibility for it – whether that’s the boys at the top end of the pitch or the goalkeeper. The last thing we need to do now is shy away. I don’t think you saw that tonight, but we didn’t see the quality that was needed in those moments either.”
