There’s no getting away from Nottingham Forest’s woeful 15-minute capitulation at the London Stadium. It was a total disasterclass in how to shoot yourselves in the foot.
Once West Ham United’s first went in, the Reds simply collapsed. They completely folded. A horrible combination of dismal defending and dreadful game-management which saw them fall apart.
As Steve Cooper said: “It was unacceptable in so many ways, and particularly from a mentality, a concentration and decision-making point of view.” The Forest head coach admitted he was finding it “difficult to comprehend” what had happened.
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Unpicking the context around Saturday’s 4-0 thumping is a little harder. You need only take a brief look at social media to see the fine line Cooper treads in such games.
There’s little doubt the decision to bring off Jonjo Shelvey and replace him with a forward was a turning point. But how and why that happened only highlights the perils of management, particularly when it comes to trying to notch up results away from home in the Premier League.
Subbing Shelvey
A team which has managed only three goals and one win on the road in the league needs to find a way of offering more going forward. Cooper spoke openly about that prior to Saturday’s game.
But while there will be plenty who argue the Reds were too defensive for much of the first 70 minutes, the Shelvey substitution also shows the risks which come with trying to be more proactive. It is a particularly narrow tightrope.
Shelvey’s fitness levels after recently recovering from a calf injury meant his was a change which was always planned. The decision to bring on Andre Ayew in his place, rather than a like-for-like switch, was an attacking one. The scoreline was still 0-0; Forest felt, having started to play their way in, the game was there for the taking - particularly if the home fans began to grow frustrated.
In hindsight, there’s a case for saying bringing on another midfielder might have been best; that even a scrappy draw would not have been a bad result. But therein lies the difficulty - trying to be positive ended up being a negative for Cooper. Had he not gone that way, some would almost certainly have accused him of being too cautious.
Shelvey had been playing really well. Less than five minutes after he departed, Danny Ings broke the deadlock, while the change left Jack Colback and Remo Freuler overrun.
Reds unravel
Even at 1-0, it wouldn’t necessarily have been all over for Forest. True, they had been struggling to create, but with a single-goal deficit - and maybe a nervy crowd - there is always a chance. They showed that against Manchester City.
Had they regrouped after the opener, who knows what might have happened. Instead, they crumbled and the game got taken away from them.
There had been some resolute defending in the first half. Corners and free-kicks racked up for the hosts, but Keylor Navas hadn’t been too severely tested, albeit there would have been a sigh of relief when Felipe inadvertently deflected a Lucas Paqueta effort on to the post.
For that quarter of an hour after the break, though, the back line went missing. The Reds were brushed aside. Heads dropped and they allowed their opponents to run riot.
That was of particular concern for Cooper. It was an unwelcome throwback to previous occasions when the floodgates opened earlier in the season - something it was hoped Forest had put behind them.
Travel sickness
Cooper had been asked in the build-up to his side’s trip to the capital whether their away form had become a mental issue for his players. He insisted that wasn’t the case, but trying to put that record right between now and the end of the season is only going to get tougher.
Four of the Reds’ final seven games on the road are against teams in the top 10, in Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Brentford and Chelsea. The other three are against Leeds United, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace.
Even before the match turned, there had been little for the travelling fans to get excited about. Felipe wasn’t far off with a header, Morgan Gibbs-White drew a comfortable save from Lukasz Fabianski and Brennan Johnson argued he should have had a penalty before the break. Renan Lodi, too, had a spot-kick appeal waved away in the second half.
At that point, Forest were just starting to gain a foothold. As a collective, they had been guilty of too many misplaced passes when they did have the ball in the first 45 minutes, but they had shown more intent during a second-half spell.
An injury to Fabianski which required a lengthy stoppage disrupted the visitors’ flow, with the Shelvey change also made around that time. Pinpointing where Saturday went wrong is relatively easy, figuring out how to get it right on their travels is much more difficult for Cooper.
A big weekend
“We like a challenge. We like to tackle things that need tackling, and playing away from home is definitely one of them. And by the way, it doesn’t mean our home form is going to continue, unless we continue to work even harder at that,” Cooper had said in his pre-match press conference.
That last point is particularly important given the next game at the City Ground has only taken on added importance. Not being able to pick up something at the London Stadium has put the pressure on next weekend’s clash with Everton.
Forest started Saturday sitting 13th in the table. They are still 13th, but the gap to the bottom three has been narrowed to four points.
They are still well placed. They can still stay up. There is no need for panic. But Cooper, more than anyone, wants to see continuous improvement, and he’ll know how the afternoon transpired against the Hammers left plenty of room for that.
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