Steve Cooper vowed to ensure Nottingham Forest quickly bounce back from a 6-0 thumping at Manchester City.
The reigning Premier League champions were a class apart at the Etihad Stadium. Erling Haaland bagged a first-half hat-trick to put them firmly in control, with Julian Alvarez hitting a brace in the second half and Joao Cancelo also getting on the scoresheet.
Reds boss Cooper admitted his side didn’t help themselves, with errors punished and a bit of “naivety” shown. However, he stressed his team’s season will not be defined by results against the likes of City, but more how they recover from them, with a home game against Bournemouth next up on Saturday.
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“They are an incredible team. Play an incredible way. And players who match both of those things, including Haaland,” Cooper said.
“We knew, coming into the game, that it was as tough as it gets. Not just in our league, but in the world, really, on the domestic stage.
“For us, we had to be 100 percent; we had to be perfect in the game, to try to get any success. And even if we were, it didn’t mean the game was going to go straight forward.
“But we weren’t. The three goals in the first half are soft, really. We’re better than that. It ended up setting the tone for the rest of the night.
“At half-time, it was about sticking together and not giving up; making sure it became a challenge for our togetherness and our mentality. Although we did, again, give them situations where we could have done a lot better with the goals, I’m not looking at my team and thinking they did give up. I’m not looking at them and thinking the commitment or work ethic weren’t right.
“I just think we were a little bit naïve on the night. We made errors that got punished.
“That’s a massive learning. The smallest of errors can just be punished. That’s how the game went tonight.
“Tonight won’t define our season, I’ll make sure that’s the case. It’s a great challenge for me, now, as well, to turnaround for another game on Saturday.
“We have to live and learn, there’s no doubt about that. As I said to the guys in the changing room, to be the team we want to be, you have to recover from set-backs.
“Tonight is not a good scoreline in any way, shape or form. But it’s happened, so let’s make sure we recover.”
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