Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper says his decision to bring off Jonjo Shelvey against West Ham United was down to the midfielder's fitness levels.
The January signing’s substitution proved a pivotal moment in the Reds' 4-0 thumping at the London Stadium. Shelvey had been playing well, and the game was still goalless when he made way for Andre Ayew.
However, the former Newcastle United man has only recently returned from a calf problem, and given Forest's extensive injury list, it was a change Cooper had always planned to make. Rather than opting for a like-for-like switch, he viewed turning to Ayew as a positive substitution as he sought to claim a result.
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However, the visitors lost their way after Shelvey's departure. Just a few minutes later, Danny Ings broke the deadlock and the floodgates opened, with four goals conceded in a damaging 15-minute spell.
"We wanted to stay in the game for as long as we could, with an idea that we could get some momentum of our own and some control in the game," Cooper said. "We would have liked it to have been a little bit earlier than what it was, but up until their goalkeeper's injury, I really felt like we were starting to take charge in the game - which seems a little bit silly to say now, because of what went on.
"But that's what we wanted to do. Obviously we didn't show enough to really maximise that moment. If anything, it went the other way.
"We blame nobody but ourselves. We had to make some changes at certain times in the game, because of where players are at physically
"I thought Jonjo was really good, but we knew he could only give us so much. He's only just come back from a long period out.
"It was frustrating that we had to do that. But at the same time, we can't risk him getting injured again. That was something which ended up going against us.
"Renan was the same. We knew some changes were going to happen. But we were ready for the changes and we felt the changes could have kept going where the game was at that time. But obviously the complete opposite happened, where we went 1-0 down and then completely let the game go away from us with how we handled that situation, which was completely unacceptable.
"It's difficult to comprehend at the moment. But for sure, we have to get back to the training ground with the players and have a grown-up conversation with the players about what went on."
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