Stevie Cooper

[Tricky]

Everyone is behind Forest...........and if Cooper picks a good side and we play well against Manure nobody will complain.

Things go wrong when the team sheet comes out and people say "WTF........" and then we play S**t again and we lose.....

Hopefully Cooper might be tempted to try something different on Sunday and not the "same same again" ...........if he does pick a good creative side then I will be happy.

However, he does not appear to like creative sides or creative players.......unless they played for England Youth teams.

Not having a pop at you here JW, just debate............

What seems to be being overlooked just lately is the fact that most of our creativity is currently out injured, with the exception of Danilo, who has started the last couple of games and Surridge, who in all fairness, I do not know what the lad has got to do to start a game! He played Kouyate for a bit of creativity but that only lasted 30 minutes against Villa. 

But after that, who else has he got that can be creative? Scarpa? Out injured! Yates? Out injured! Lingard? We haven't seen anything to shout about and I think his head has gone TBH, hence why he isnt in matchday squads. Shelvey does have a creative side to him and can ping some lovely passes around the pitch. Sadly, he is too hot headed and is massively error prone in dangerous areas.

My biggest gripe about Cooper are his substitutions. Sometimes, they make sense i.e. taking Worrall off so we could change formation, I get that. Bringing on Ayew to replace Danilo over Surridge? I don't get.

On Saturday, I felt we were the better side against Villa in the first half. We showed more attacking intent than them and were holding our own against a massively improved side, pushing for a top 6 spot. We did show some creativity, especially through Danilo, right up to the point we did something stupid (again), conceded the first goal, and then panic set in and we reverted back to just lumping the ball away, often completely by passing our midfield, who were all back defending.

So I ask the question, in all sincerity, can we afford to retain our minimal creative sparks once we concede a goal? Should we shore up our defence by bringing on an older, more experienced midfielder? Do we stick with what we started with and go again? Just remember that the squad Cooper has got to work with is now down to the bare bones due to the ridiculous amount of injuries. I don't honestly think even Pep or any other manager would be able to do more than what Cooper is doing right now, with the resources available. So when we look at the team sheet and go "Oh shit!", stop and remember that we don't have that many players left that are fully fit and ready to go.