Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper has told Nottinghamshire Live what he’s really enjoyed about his team’s preparation for tomorrow’s game against Bournemouth.
The Reds head to the Vitality Stadium looking to return to the top-six in the Championship. They slipped out last week after a 2-2 draw with Stoke at the City Ground.
Forest’s transformation under Cooper has been quite remarkable. Only Fulham have won more points than the Reds during the last 24 games but nothing has been won yet.
It proved to be something a bit different for Forest in their preparation for tomorrow’s clash at Bournemouth.
Earlier this week, Norwich City were invited to the City Ground to take part in a behind closed doors friendly clash.
Cooper hasn’t revealed too many details of the project which saw plenty of fringe players get minutes on the pitch.
He has, however, spoken of his pride at how serious the game was taken and how ideal it was for Forest’s meticulous approach to Friday.
Cooper told Nottinghamshire Live: “We got loads of good things out of it.
“It changes the scenery of our preparation a little bit. It was played at the City Ground.
“I thought it was treated with respect by both teams and we certainly got a lot out of it.
“We’ve done a few of them, and we’ll do a few more of them. It could be really important.”
Cooper approach can help Forest
This can’t be a bad thing. Not only did it let some fringe players get a crack at playing a proper game, but it also allowed the Reds to get some players up to speed with the way Cooper wants Forest to play.
When Forest adopts a 3-4-3 system it’s a very complex system and it can’t be easy to sit on the sidelines and then be expected to just slot in.
Playing a game against Premier League opposition will have also been a nice test for Forest.
It’s certainly refreshing to have a head coach that fancies this sort of approach to preparing for games and it’s refreshing to hear that it went well.
Of course, nobody knows whether Forest won. A look at Cafu’s Instagram story suggests the Reds did score at least but the result isn’t important.
Three points at Bournemouth is imperative and Cooper will hope this training game served a purpose.
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