Ensuring Nottingham Forest have enough “athleticism” in their squad to cope with the demands of the Premier League has been a key factor in their transfer window.
Steve Cooper said: “You look at a number of things. You want to have the right positional mix, with the strength in depth for each position. You definitely want to have the right athleticism – that’s been so striking in the first five games, that it’s a very athletic, dynamic, fast league that you have to compete with. There’s loads of components that you look at. Always, you want the mixture of youth and experience, and Premier League or top-level experience. There’s been a number of factors. And then you want to sign players of a profile that fits the way you want to play. That’s a lot of things. It’s not just thinking about the team which starts games. With being able to make five subs, you’re also thinking about teams which may finish games. That’s going to become a really important factor in football, going forward. It’s more than the XI players who start, there’s 20 players who you’ve got to keep engaged, in terms of the game-plan, to play. It’s not just about the XI. You try to train in a way that you’re training the whole squad, because they may be needed. That’s becoming a real norm now, with our work. But we’re tackling it head on. We’re trying to cope with these things as they come, and we’ll see where we’re at when the games come.”
