Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper was given plenty of food for thought with an impressive team display to see off Tottenham Hotspur.
Goals from Renan Lodi and Jesse Lingard clinched a 2-0 win at the City Ground on Wednesday night, sealing the Reds’ place in the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. And the two goal scorers were among the nine changes Cooper had made to his starting XI.
While the duo have been in and out of the side, for others who made the line-up, minutes have been even harder to come - the likes of Joe Worrall, Willy Boly and Sam Surridge, for instance. But valuable contributions came throughout the team against Spurs, leaving Cooper with some selection dilemmas ahead of Saturday’s clash against Crystal Palace, which is Forest’s final match before the World Cup break.
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"The way we work is to train the squad, everybody the same,” said the head coach. “We train all members of the team, but not everyone plays, obviously. Some guys haven't played for a little while, so to think they can go play like that is good, because it's not an 11-man game any more.
"We made a lot of changes, but not a change of experience or age or level of player. We had international players all throughout the starting line-up.
"We've got players who haven't played for a while, it's a three-game week and players have been training really well and deserved an opportunity - and they took it. I said to the boys, the changes weren't like sometimes you get in the League Cup where you just play the lads who don't play in the league. That's the last thing it was.
"We train the squad equally and try to keep everybody ready for selection. All the boys have done really, really well.
"Nobody was on trial, nobody was getting assessed. We have a squad of players who we know can play. It's just about selection.
"You see how many changes we've made in games, and from game to game. It's another game of players trying to play well, playing well, and we'll see what happens going forward.
"That's what you want in every position - headaches. Whenever you pick a team, days leading up to a game or even on game day, you want to be having to make tough decisions.
"It's a real squad game now. What you want is everybody competing for a spot in the team in the next game.
"There will be some decisions. Not just for Saturday, but hopefully going forward.”
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