Nottingham Forest

FootballHQ said:
Cooper going to be a victim of his own success here in a way.

Forest however are not staying up if they can't even get draws at home to promoted teams in games they actually take the lead in.
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Yeah, sounds like they had no right to get promoted really. I hope they keep him.

I've read all the articles about why they brought all those players in and I get that they pretty much had no choice - or not much choice - but it must be close to impossible integrating that many.
 
I mean what do you expect when the manager wasn’t backed?
 
They should have put more effort into retaining the players that got them promotion and added a few key players on top! Must be weird and hard as a fan seeing virtually a whole new team to keep emotionally invested
 
Initially it seemed an exciting prospect when they were promoted. Was looking forward seeing a pedigree team with history back in the PL after 23yrs, but can’t see them staying up even in the likely event of Cooper getting sacked.
There’s a case for having too many new players in a squad, I’d say between 5-6 recruits is usually the maximum in order to blend in with the existing team.
 
As much as I admire what Cooper did to get Forest promoted - if you have Brendan Johnson, Joe Worrall and Ryan Yates from the season that got promoted, then you get Henderson on loan and Jesse Lingard on a free. If you then spend £140 million on players and the team still doesn't perform quite well - you deserve to go.

And I am not saying Forest should sack Cooper of course - but if Forest are near the bottom at new years - he could be in problems.
 
I didn't really get the praise when they lost at home 2-0 to Spurs on the first match. Spurs missed a penalty too, and failed with a few final balls that should have created big chances all while not playing very well themselves. Forest looked very open. Easy to say that in retrospect as I didn't post anything at the time but they really did.

Still way too early to write them off. Posted in another Forest thread that they had a run of 6 decent fixtures ahead of them. 2 defeats from the first 2 of those against fellow promoted teams is a terrible start to that run. Still, Leicester (A), Villa (H), Wolves (A), Brighton (A) without Potter isn't that bad for their next 4 .

Need 6+ points fast because then comes Liverpool (H), Arsenal (A), Brentford (H), Palace (H), United (A), Chelsea (H) where I doubt they'll get too many.
 
TheGame said:
They’ve lost their unity of last season with a number of key players leaving. Now it just seems a mish mash of players with a hope it will turn out ok.
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They needed to replace the loan players with quality. As you say I think they have messed up the team spirit bringing so many players in at once. They literally do play like strangers.
 
Bournemouth and Fulham at home were important games if they want to stay up. They lost them both. I wonder if they'll strengthen in January :lol:
 
Thiagoal said:
They should have put more effort into retaining the players that got them promotion and added a few key players on top! Must be weird and hard as a fan seeing virtually a whole new team to keep emotionally invested
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They're still regularly starting the likes of Worrall, Johnson, Yates and McKenna, that's four guys who started the play off final. Also got another 3-4 on the bench from last season's squad.
 
Just no continuity in selections. So many changes yet again, they don't give themselves a chance.

OK the system has changed but again a new CM combination from the previous game
 
I don't get how you can expect anyone to get 22 new players to work so quickly, they're just a mess, I dread to think what will happen to them if they go down.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I don't get how you can expect anyone to get 22 new players to work so quickly, they're just a mess, I dread to think what will happen to them if they go down.
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Very true, a mad idea for good reason. I do feel though that Cooper needs to pick a setup and stick with it. This chopping and changing is getting them nowhere.
 
11 individuals. They're going back down fast.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
I don't get how you can expect anyone to get 22 new players to work so quickly, they're just a mess, I dread to think what will happen to them if they go down.
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Think this is a bit overstated, they still shouldn't be this bad. This is like Fulham bad.
 
Best thing is, relegation would mean the majority of that team leaves. Potentially a completely new side once again next season.
 
Rafa Benitez is being linked with the job of Cooper goes
 
Samid said:
Can you really afford relegation after spending 170m?
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Was reading an Athletic breakdown which seemed to suggest they'll struggle but that between parachute payments and selling players with resale value (they've bought fairly young) they won't be facing disaster.
 
Not sure if there is a Lingard specific thread, but I’ve been reading a lot of Forest fans on twitter who are sick of him and think he’s just there for the money. Seems the fresh start didn’t do him any good, might’ve been better going back to West Ham?
 
Dec9003 said:
Not sure if there is a Lingard specific thread, but I’ve been reading a lot of Forest fans on twitter who are sick of him and think he’s just there for the money. Seems the fresh start didn’t do him any good, might’ve been better going back to West Ham?
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saw some posts on their forum and it’s the same. They don’t want him in the line up
 
How many Forest players will go to the World Cup?

i think they’ll have a massive upturn post WC as they will have had a whole month to train together and a lot of sides are going to be groggy during the restart to the league. They need to get a PL-level manager in ASAP, also.
 
What a weird time to announce it.
 
From being in crisis talks last week to signing a new 3 year contract this week. Has Ed Woodward got a new job?
 
Samid said:
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How fecking strange is that?

Rock bottom after signing an entire new squad, losing their last five on the bounce. Perfect time to give the manager a new deal. :lol:
 
mu4c_20le said:
Think this is a bit overstated, they still shouldn't be this bad. This is like Fulham bad.
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It’s not overstated, it’s proven. Same happened with QPR. You can’t replace your full squad in one go, no matter how good a coach you think you are you will very gel them on time
 
V.O. said:
How fecking strange is that?

Rock bottom after signing an entire new squad, losing their last five on the bounce. Perfect time to give the manager a new deal. :lol:
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They want to look at their DoF buying all these random players like some kind of player bingo. I doubt cooper asked for half of them!
 
Strange. They want to look different from other promoted club that "we support of manager who brought us here no matter the dark days" but it will surely come back to bite them in the ass because everything points out to sacking him not renewing his contract.
 
Honestly thought he'd be gone by the weekend and then Boro would go for him :lol:
 
A good move long term I think, though weird timing for a new deal. Cooper is clearly a good manager and I doubt they'll stay up this year regardless. Eyes on a (more sensible) regroup and rebuild next year before Norwiching their way back up the year after, I reckon.
 
It's a good time, it's been hanging over them. Remember how our form fell of a cliff when Fergie announced his aborted retirement early? Managerial uncertainty is a killer. I won't be surprised their form picks up now that Cooper has had his authority reasserted.
 
To be fair to Cooper he did a great job last season and firing him at this point would have incredibly knee jerk. It has been well documented why they had to go out and sign so many players and it was inevitable they would take time to bed in and find their best XI and the added complication of changing managers and systems won't help that process. With the huge gap for the World Cup I think it is odd that any club would fire their manager before then unless they are seriously incompetent as that period would allow effectively another pre season and time for a new man to get his ideas across.

I actually am in the minority who thinks Forest will be alright this season, probably no better than 16th or 17th but I fancy Cooper to get them winning soon and I still expect there to be 3 worse teams when we get to the business end of the season.
 
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