Aston Villa moved into seventh place in the table with their sixth game unbeaten following their 2-1 win at Leicester. Their opponents, Nottingham Forest, are barely out of the relegation zone and have only won one away game all season. Can Villa continue their form in front of what will be a rocking Villa Park?
I spoke to The Forest Preservation Society to find out more about Forest’s season so far.
UTV PODCAST X THE FOREST PRESERVATION SOCIETY
The Forest story in recent seasons has been a particularly interesting one. From statement cup runs, Championship relegation battles to promotion. The next chapter in this story looks to be a Premier League relegation battle. How confident do you feel about your chances of survival?
“It’s most definitely a Premier League relegation battle! And in some ways, we accept that because it’s been a pretty dull existence for large parts of our recent history. The last 18 months or so have been fantastic.”
“Our survival hopes remain in the balance and I’m really not sure how it will go. It’s been a torrid run and the defeat at Leeds on Tuesday night was just about as bad as it’s been. We must hope that it gets better from there otherwise we are going down.”
“It’s difficult to see where our next win comes from, but we’ve also seen how hard it has been for all the teams down at the bottom to conjure up anything that lifts them away from trouble. I have faith we’ll find a way, especially as we’ve shown how good we can be at home”.
There’s been a lot of speculation in recent weeks about Steve Cooper’s future. For the second time this season, the Forest owners have come out and stated that Cooper’s job is safe. How do you feel about that decision? Is Cooper the man to keep you in the league?
“It may surprise people outside of Nottingham just how determined Forest fans were for Steve Cooper to remain. It’s not simply because he got us up after so long, but because he has invested himself into the club in a quite extraordinary way”.
“He’s a creator of a culture, he has pulled the whole club in together and he’s even played the tricky card of our glorious history very well by using it as inspiration and not a hindrance. I will be surprised if Cooper doesn’t one day reach the top, he is a remarkable coach and a remarkable man”.
With the amount of signings that Forest have made this season, it was always going to be a mixed bag in terms of performances. Who’s been the best of the lot and who’s disappointed?
“It’s understandable that the volume of signings we made raised some eyebrows, but in the most part it was necessary. We were promoted with a team of loanees, ageing players and ones that were sadly not going to be good enough. Funnily enough, if we hadn’t signed them all we would have ended up desperately short of signings due to pretty big injury list that had built up and is only just now easing”.
“The strange thing is most of them have been pretty good, there aren’t many you’d say haven’t worked out. The issue being maybe not enough have been the game changers we wanted them to be”.
“Jesse Lingard has been the notable disappointment. It always felt like he would fly or flop and we have seen very little of him. He was subbed off at half-time at Spurs a few weeks ago and I suspected at the time that was his Forest career done”.
“Of the new signings who have impressed me most Renan Lodi (on loan), Morgan Gibbs-White and Serge Aurier are a few that stand out. But we signed Felipe from Atletico Madrid in January and he is sensational, a really sublime footballer who deserves much better than a relegation fight”.
Finally what’s your score prediction?
“Before our game with Villa at the City Ground, it looked like Cooper might have been dismissed but the club publicly backed him. And it helped lift us. You may have seen the same thing has happened this week, so for no reason other than daft, illogical football I think we’ll draw 1-1 again”.
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OPPOSITION FOCUS | STEVE COOPER
Recently, there’s been lots of speculation around the managerial positions of most of the clubs in the relegation battle. Southampton, Wolves, Leeds, Everton, and Palace acted early and brought in managerial changes. Last week, Leicester City joined that trend and sacked Rodgers. With the pressure piling on West Ham manager David Moyes, the question that was on everyone’s lips was simple. Will Forest sack Cooper?
The simple answer is no. We know they won’t. Nottingham Forest owners released a statement denying media speculation that Cooper’s job was in trouble. In this opposition focus, I’ll be taking a look at whether or not that is the right decision.
First of all, let’s look at how the teams that have sacked their managers have fared. The most recent team to make the change has been Leicester. The Foxes currently sit 19th after their loss to Villa under the management of caretaker manager Sandler. The sacking of Rodgers felt like a panic move, and in my book, it will take a lot for a new manager to keep this side in the Premier League.
Next up under the microscope are Everton, Leeds United, and Wolves. These sackings have worked very well for these clubs, and I think they’ll have secured their Premier League status. Dyche has brought back the feel-good factor to Everton in a way similar to how Lampard did. The difference between Dyche and Lampard is bringing football back to its basics with clear tactics.
Similarly, Leeds and Wolves change in management has drastically increased their chances of survival. Lopetegui and Gracia have secured some important results, which have seen them put some much-needed distance between them and the bottom three. Having said this, Leeds have only appointed Gracia on a temporary basis.
That leaves us with Southampton, which is, in truth, a bit of a difficult one. There’s no denying that the disastrous reign of Nathan Jones had to be ended as soon as possible. There was virtually no way that the Saints would stay up under the Welshman. Having said that, their chances don’t look that much better under interim manager Selles. Although he did manage to find a few decent results, this Southampton squad looks completely void of confidence and destined for the Championship.
So based on the fortunes of the other relegation-fighting teams, I think it’s the right decision for Forest to back Cooper to keep them in the league. Cooper knows this team well and gets the job. The players seem to enjoy playing for him, and the fans have a real connection with him. As well as this, if Forest were to sack Cooper, they’d be competing for a manager with the likes of Palace, Leicester, and Southampton. Therefore, I believe if Forest is to stay in the league, it’ll be under the helm of Cooper.
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MY PREDICTION
Things are as positive for Villa as they have been in a long time. Six games unbeaten and a genuine ambition to try and break into Europe Forest’s away form has been dismal this season, so this presents the perfect opportunity to build on our progress. This is an exciting time to be a Villa fan, and I’m hoping the excitement will only continue. I’ll go for a 3-0 Villa win.
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AUTHOR | ELLIS BURNETT
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