2 Nottingham Forest dilemmas facing Steve Cooper as December looms | OneFootball

Nottingham Forest have looked a lot more solid since Steve Cooper took over at the club and he has managed to guide them to a six-match unbeaten run in the Championship.

They’re now looking more towards the higher reaches of the table rather than lower down the league – but they still remain in 16th place and will want to kick on in the second half of the campaign.

They have shown flashes of their brilliance of old – and a 3-0 win over Preston and a solid draw against West Brom highlighted that.

However, there are still some issues that need sorting at the City Ground and here are two that the new boss could be facing in December.

Turning draws into wins

One look at the last couple of results from Nottingham Forest shows how solid a side they can be. They haven’t conceded much – just two goals in their last five games – and have been a hard team to break down.

The issue though lies in finding the right balance in the squad. They can keep a clean sheet at one end of the field but can’t take advantage at the other by firing in the goals that would turn some of these draws into wins.

Quiz: 30 questions about Nottingham Forest’s best strikers from the last 5 years – Can you score 30/30?

Lewis Grabban is the club’s current top goalscorer with eight and he can certainly hit the back of the net at this level, he just hasn’t done so over the last few fixtures.

Steve Cooper will likely need to find a way to not only spread out the goals then but find the right balance between defence and attack. If he can help his side get the ball into dangerous areas and to the right people in those areas – like Grabban or even the exciting Brennan Johnson – without hindering their defensive capabilities, they should start to pick up more three points.

Get the fans smiling by picking up home form

He’s already made a good start to this but Steve Cooper would really increase his support by getting Forest firing more at the City Ground.

Away from home, the club have been one of the best in the league for picking up points on their travels. Wherever they have made the trip to, they have always looked bright and caused an issue for the home team.

When this is flipped though and the side are playing in Nottingham, it’s a completely different story so far this season. In ten games, the club have only won two so far and even they have only come very recently since Cooper took over.

They need to make winning at home more of a regular occurrence again going forward because home form like theirs will not get them up near the top six. Steve Cooper has already brought a slight change in this so far – they’ll be hoping this can continue consistently.