Steve Cooper was absolutely furious with Nottingham Forest man Emmanuel Dennis yesterday. The 25-year-old came on for the Reds at half-time as they trailed Tottenham 2-0 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
Forest were once again poor on their travels. They should have fallen behind after just 90 seconds when Richarlison fired into the net but an incorrect VAR call saw the Reds reprieved.
The Reds were behind shortly after though when Harry Kane opened the scoring. He would add a second goal before half-time when Joe Worrall clumsily felled a Spurs player in the box.
Dennis was pretty useful when he came on but Cooper wasn’t happy with his part in Tottenham’s third goal. He lost possession on the edge of the opposition penalty area and a neat breakaway saw Son Heung-min wrap the game up.
Ryan Taylor who works for The Express claimed shortly after the goal that Cooper was absolutely furious with Dennis. The striker did give the ball away and the Reds’ head coach was incensed.
The 43-year-old clearly wanted his player to be stronger with Forest in a good position. Instead, he fell easily to the floor and tried to win a foul for his team by taking a bit of a tumble.
Cooper absolutely furious with Forest man Dennis
It’s a shame the Forest head coach doesn’t get equally furious with some other members of his squad. Dennis actually changed the Reds for the better yesterday and he performed well when he came on.
It does appear as though Cooper isn’t a fan of Dennis. He rarely starts him in the team and ultimately he’s struggled to gain any real consistency during the 2022/2 campaign.
The player signed for £20 million from Watford has scored just once for the Reds and he was linked with a move away in January. With Cooper now seemingly not fancying him, he could be on the move in the summer.
Cooper is being incredibly harsh here. A lot happened between Dennis losing the ball and it ending up in the Forest net and perhaps some other players should be on the end of the manager’s anger instead.