Nottingham Forest will continue to tackle the challenge in front of them head on as they prepare for the final two games which will decide their Premier League fate.
Head coach Steve Cooper has made a point of openly discussing the Reds’ situation with his squad throughout the season, being keen not to have any “elephants in the room”. It is an approach he will maintain as the battle for survival reaches its climax.
Forest are in control of their own destiny, sitting outside of the relegation zone, but it remains nerve-wrackingly tight at the bottom of the table. And Cooper’s men are aware they have two tough matches ahead to see the campaign out, with Arsenal visiting the City Ground on Saturday and a trip to Crystal Palace on the final day.
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"They don't need any geeing up,” Cooper said of his players. “We talk openly every day about the situation and always put context around it.
"Everybody deals with different situations in different ways; we just want to give everybody the opportunity to deal with it in the way they feel best. If that's opening up conversations because people want to talk about it, then great. If it's a little bit more private for some individuals, that's fine as well.
"What we don't do is have elephants in the room, because that's not the way everybody likes to deal with it. When you get players talking to each other and talking in groups, that's how you build even more togetherness and an understanding where people have come from. I believe in that.
"We have to keep that going. We've just got to stick to what we believe in, stick to the plan - some of it has worked really well this year, other bits we should do better and could do better with.
"We're only looking forward. We're straight back to the training ground. We can't just focus on next Saturday too much, we've got to focus on the next day and get as much out of it as we can.”
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