Head coach Steve Cooper rued a lack of “competitive moments” and poor game management in Nottingham Forest’s defeat to Leicester City.
While he refused to criticise his players publicly after their 4-0 thumping at the King Power Stadium, the Welshman acknowledged tough words have been said amid the Reds’ losing streak. Being beaten by the Foxes extended that run to five games and left Cooper’s side bottom of the Premier League table.
The night might have panned out differently had Taiwo Awoniyi put away a good chance shortly before the hosts opened the scoring. But the visitors generally looked all at sea in a particularly damaging first half which saw two goals shipped in two minutes and a three-goal deficit at the break.
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Cooper’s job is under serious threat as a result. It is not the first time this season where his team have quickly fallen apart after conceding a goal, and he expressed his frustration at coming out second-best in key moments on Monday night.
“I wish I could really give the answer to that,” he said of his side’s game-management. “We’ve talked so much about it over the last couple of games and over the international break in between.
“I said after the Fulham game that we look very vulnerable off conceding a goal. And we’ve done it again.
“If you actually look at the second goal, it’s come from not winning a competitive moment quite high up the pitch. If you don’t do that and you give teams like Leicester, a technical team, space, then they will progress up the pitch - and they have good players to make a difference.
“That was particularly annoying, if I’m being honest, in the game, where we did that again. It’s not something we’ve ignored, because of what has happened in previous games.
“I’m not soft with the players, that’s the last thing I am, but I refuse to be really critical of them as a group, because we’re all in this really tough challenge together.
“Tactically, first half, we were not what we planned to be. That had a big impact on the rhythm of the game and the momentum Leicester had. That was frustrating.
“Also, I didn’t like us in the duels in the first half. There wasn’t enough competitive moments, duels, one-v-ones, fight-balls, second-balls, whatever you want to call it, where I felt we were coming out on top. It was the opposite.
“Because of those two things, we ended up giving too much space for Leicester to play as they wanted to play and, in the end, getting around our box. When you do that at this level, you run the risk of creating chances and conceding goals, and that’s what happened.
“But we should score before they score. If someone had said we would have a chance to go 1-0 up, then I would have bitten whoever’s hand off.
“We are not taking those moments in games and scoring when we should. But also, we are having phases in games where we are letting the result run away from us - and we’ve done it again, with two goals in a couple of minutes and then a third.
“Although we made changes and did better in the second half, the game was too far away from us. It’s frustrating.”
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