We called Cooper out for subbing Shelvey and not replacing like for like last week but how much has Cooper got correct this season. I was listening to him being interviewed before game and the interviewer asked if the draw at Everton had a bearing on game. SC felt it was so long ago and teams had changed so much and Forest were still integrating at that time that his answer was no,very little.
Got me thinking. Last Everton game, third game of the season and the media was up in arms about Forest buying 21 players. Here we are now with the team starting yesterday and Navas, Lodi, Aurier, Felipe, Shelvey and Wood were not at the club when we played Everton. It shows what a massive turnaround of staff not once but twice that Cooper has had to manage whilst playing every week. Add to that Ayew, Scarpa and Danilo and we can see why they appear a bit disjointed at times. If we can survive this season, bring in 3 high quality players and have a good preseason, I am hopeful of some real quality football next season.
elsewhere I have commented about building a team around MGW, BJ and possibly Danilo. All 22 this year. If we can supplement these with three more quality young players we will have a nucleus for the future. Just need to survive this year.