From no wins in the first seven games of the season to one of the form sides in the division, the scale of Nottingham Forest's turnaround under Steve Cooper has been remarkable, and all our regular contributor Jack McCormick hopes for now is one of those spots in the top six.
How's the season gone so far?
If the season had started after the first seven games, in which we were lucky to pick up the solitary point we got under Chris Hughton, we’d be second in the league. It’s been a quite remarkable turnaround since then and, when you chuck in FA Cup wins over Arsenal and Leicester, not to mention this Sunday’s quarter final against Liverpool, it’s become one of the most enjoyable seasons I can remember.
Forest league results so far…
Coventry 2-1 Forest Gyokeres 81, McFadzean 90 — Taylor 36
Forest 1-2 Bournemouth McKenna 48 — Brooks 28, Billing 58
Forest 1-2 Blackburn Zinckernagel 69 — Ayala 47, Lenihan 69
Stoke 1-0 Forest Tyman 66
Derby 1-1 Forest Lawrence 11 — Johnson 82
Forest 1-2 Cardiff Grabban 23 — Colwill 58, 73
Forest 0-2 Boro Sporar 24, Hernandez 72
Huddersfield 0-2 Forest Grabban 22, Nichols og 48
Forest 1-1 Millwall Lowe 52 — Smith 32
Barnsley 1-3 Forest Woodrow pen 20 — Zinckernagel 61, Johnson 68, Grabban 81
Birmingham 0-3 Forest Grabban 11, Yates 29, Spence 53
Forest 2-1 Blackpool Johnson 22, Grabban 61 — Yates 53
Bristol City 1-2 Forest Scott 39 — Taylor pen 90, 90
Forest 0-4 Fulham Spence og 7, Mitrovic 58, pen 67, Kebano 61
QPR 1-1 Forest Dykes 45 — Colback 90
Forest 1-1 Sheff Utd Grabban 83 — Gibbs-White 78
Forest 3-0 Preston Grabban pen 32, 70, Colback 41
Reading 1-1 Forest Dann 64 — Zinckernagel 4
Forest 0-0 Luton
West Brom 0-0 Forest
Forest 2-0 Peterborough Garner 72, Yates 84
Swansea 1-4 Forest Piroe 62 — Zinckernagel 48, Grabban 50, Johnson 68, Cafu 90
Forest 2-1 Hull Grabban pen 55, Johnson 72 — Lewis-Potter 43
Boro 2-0 Forest Yates og 17, Sporar 68
Forest 0-1 Huddersfield Holmes 30
Millwall 0-1 Forest Grabban 90
Forest 2-1 Derby Grabban 48, Johnson 82 — Lawrence pen 88
Forest 3-0 Barnsley Davis 15, Yates 38, Johnson 75
Cardiff 2-1 Forest Hugill 6, Davies 65 — Davis 90
Blackburn 0-2 Forest Garner 22, Johnson pen 90
Forest 2-2 Stoke Johnson 56, Yates 90 — Maja 68, Baker pen 88
Preston 0-0 Forest
Forest 2-0 Bristol City Johnson 38, Garner 55
Sheff Utd 1-1 Forest Sharp 69 — Yates 90
Forest 4-0 Reading Davis 1, 62, Yates 75, Surridge 80
Obviously a dramatic change from Hughton to Cooper, what exactly has he done and changed to bring that about?
Steve Cooper has changed so much that I don’t really know where to start. He's transformed us on the pitch, but off it, perhaps even more so, the contrast is staggering.
There’s a unity between manager, players and fans that I’ve never witnessed at Forest. That might not sound a difficult one when you’ve spent the past decade or so changing the entire playing squad and backroom staff twice a year, but in my opinion the togetherness is better than it’s been for as long as I can remember – including in the seasons we’ve made the playoffs, and even the last time we were promoted to the top flight.
It feels like the whole city is pulling in the same direction, and everyone’s fallen in love with Forest all over again. And so much of that is down to Cooper.
His Swansea team were often quite dull, but that doesn't seem to be the case with Forest, what can we expect from them on Wednesday?
I didn’t know a lot about Cooper’s style before he came here but Swansea fans warned us we’d be bored to death. If they were right, I have no idea how he’s managed to change his approach so dramatically, but we’re so much more exciting to watch than we have been for years.We press high up and work hard, and we really do "fight til the end”. We’ve scored an outrageous number of last-minute goals this season.
We’re best playing in a sort of 5212/343 hybrid and pushing the wing-backs right up the pitch, but Steve Cook got a nasty injury at the weekend that might force us to change to a back four. We’re on a really good run and, most promisingly of all, we still seem to be getting better.
What business did you do in January and how did you rate it? What did you need to do?
For the first time in more than a decade, rather than being a place footballers go to die, Forest are taking average or unwanted players and making them look like world-beaters.
In the summer, Djed Spence signed just before the window closed, having been out of favour at Boro and allowed to leave by Warnock. We’d never heard of him, and he was at the time a third senior right-back – the response from fans was "what’s the point” and "not another loan”.
Fast forward a few months and he’s been one of the stand-out performers in the entire league this season, and is being watched by clubs all over Europe. We sold Matty Cash for £16m a couple of years ago and I think Spence is even better.
Back to January, and it’s a similar trend. Sam Surridge, unwanted at Stoke four months after they signed him from Bournemouth, who also didn’t want him. Keinan Davis, not making the bench at Aston Villa and with only a less-than-inspiring Wikipedia entry to his name. Steve Cook, decent pro but no longer good enough for Bournemouth.
We needed competition up front, and Surridge and Davis have provided that – especially in Lewis Grabban’s absence due to injury. We didn’t really know we needed Cook, but he’s added experience and quality to our back three. It’s a massive blow that he’s also now injured.
All three have been outstanding signings.
Summer Ins >>> Braian Ojeda, 21, CM, Olimpia, £2m >>> Cafu, 28, CM, Olympiacos, Undisclosed >>> Mohamed Drager, 25, RB, Olympiakos, Undisclosed >>> Xande Silva, 24, RW, West Ham, Undisclosed >>> Ethan Horvarth, 26, GK, Club Brugge, Free >>> Rodrigo Ely, 27, CB, Unattached, Free >>> Max Lowe, 24, LB, Sheff Utd, Loan >>> Philip Zinckernagel, 26, RW, Watford, Loan >>> Jordi Osei-Tutu, 22, RB, Arsenal, Loan >>> James Garner, 20, CM, Man Utd, Loan >>> Djed Spence, 21, RB, Boro, Loan
Summer Outs >>> Jordan Lawrence-Gabriel, 22, RB, Blackpool, £700k >>> Sammy Ameobi, 29, LW, Boro, Free >>> Michael Hefele, 30, CB, Huddersfield, Free >>> Tyler Blackett, 27, LB, Cincinnati, Free >>> Nikolas Ioannou, 25, LB, Como, Loan >>> Yuri Rebeiro, 24, LB, Legia Warsaw, Free >>> Fouad Bachirou, 31, DM, Nikosia, Free >>> Glenn Murray, 37, CF, Retirement home >>> Michael Dawson, 37, CB, Different retirement home >>> Samba Sow, 32, DM, Released >>> Abdoulaye Diallo 29, GK, Released >>> Nikolas Ioannou, 25, LB, Como, Loan >>> Harry Arter, 31, CM, Charlton, Loan >>> Nuno Da Costa, 30, CF, Caen, Loan
Winter Ins >>> Sam Surridge, 23, CF, Stoke, £1.6m >>> Richie Laryea, 27, RB, Toronto, £800k >>> Steve Cook, 30, CB, Bournemouth, Free >>> Jonathan Panzo, 21, CB, Dijon, Undisclosed >>> Keinan Davis, 23, CF, Villa, Loan
Winter Outs >>> Joao Carvalho, 24, AM, Olympiakos, Undisclosed (of course) >>> Mohamed Drager, 25, RB, Luzern, Loan >>> Loyal Taylor, 31, CF, Birmingham, Loan >>> Carl Jenkinson, 29, RB, Melbourne, Loan >>> Rodrigo Ely, 28, CB, Released
Promotion or FA Cup?
Promotion. (Wrong — ed) It’s been 23 years since we were relegated. It’s also the only chance we’ll stand of keeping players like Brennan Johnson and Joe Worrall, and signing loans like Djed Spence and Keinan Davis on permanent deals. The FA Cup run has been a lot of fun, but I’d take a battering by Liverpool on Sunday if it meant winning tomorrow night.
Stand out players and weak links?
The obvious stand-outs are Johnson and Spence down the right. Johnson is lightning-quick, skilful, and gets goals and assists. Spence is lightning-quick, skilful, and gets goals and assists. We sometimes rely on them a little too much, but Reading kept Johnson quiet on Saturday and we still scored four.
Davis is also quickly becoming everyone’s favourite player. Plays like Michail Antonio and Stan Collymore’s lovechild. Strong as an ox, but the most skilful player on the pitch. Has started adding goals to his game, too. A real all-rounder.
Cooper’s also transformed formerly very average squad players like Ryan Yates and Jack Colback. Yates should get 10 goals this season from midfield – not bad for a someone only in the team because he was "one of our own”, according to his critics – and Colback seems to be everywhere on the pitch, even filling in very competently at left-back on a few occasions (as he may be required to do again on Wednesday, after Max Lowe also came off injured against Reading).
As for weak links, what are those? We’ll miss Cook and possibly Lowe on Wednesday, but every player in the squad is playing out their skin at the moment – three subs combined for our fourth on Saturday – so I have confidence in whoever comes in.
How do you see the rest of your season going?
If we keep up our form since Cooper came in, we should have enough to make the playoffs. It’s in our hands now, too, as we have games in hand and better goal difference than everyone below Fulham and Bournemouth – although of course the Championship is never that simple. If we can’t quite get over the line, it’ll be a really tough one to take – not least because we gave ourselves a points deduction the size of Derby County’s by sticking with Hughton for those first seven games. If we get there, though, we’d be the form team in the division and I’d fancy us to beat anyone.
Links >>> Official Website >>> Nottingham Post — Local Press >>> LTLF — Message Board >>> Bandy and Shinty — Fanzine >>> Forza Garibaldi — Blog >>> LFW Reciprocal Interview >>> Matchday with Max — YouTube Channel
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