Steve Cooper outlines what impressed him in Huddersfield win and delivers Nottingham Forest team update | OneFootball

Steve Cooper outlined Nottingham Forest’s pressing and intensity as two characteristics which impressed him in last weekend’s win over Huddersfield Town.

Forest picked up their first win of the season against the Terriers last Saturday, with interim boss Steven Reid guiding the Reds to a 2-0 victory on the road.

In the background, the club were finalising a compensation package with Swansea City to bring Cooper to the City Ground, before announcing his appointment on Tuesday afternoon.

Cooper admits he was a satisfied man, though, having watched the game back from an afternoon where Forest deployed a 3-4-3 formation and produced a positive attacking display.

Despite having to dig deep and defend for most of the second half, the Reds were good value for their win as Lewis Grabban and a Lee Nicholls own-goal saw them leave the John Smith’s Stadium with all three points.

“On the day, they did really well,” Cooper said in his first press conference this afternoon.

“That (formation) was an important change, but also the intent to take the game to the opposition, to press high up the pitch, to get on the ball and play forward and play in-between the lines, to take risks.

“We’ve got talented players who can do really dangerous things on the pitch. We showed that last Saturday, didn’t we?

“The change of formation was important, but the intent of the game was what was really impressive.”

Cooper will be hoping to get his Forest tenure off to the best possible start on Saturday afternoon, with Gary Rowett’s Millwall travelling to the City Ground.

It will be the 41-year-old’s first game in charge as the Reds look to record successive league wins and start climbing the Championship table.

Delivering an injury update, the head coach added: “There’s no real change in terms of availability for Saturday. Everybody got through the previous game unscathed and have been okay in training so far.

“Rodrigo (Ely) has started training, but he won’t be available for the weekend, or maybe not even before the international break as he has a bit of catching up to do.

“That’s not 100%. Apart from that, though, we are the same.”

Braian Ojeda and Mohamed Drager, meanwhile, will begin training on Friday, most of which is likely to involve fitness tests before joining in with the main bulk.

The pair are back in the country, having been training remotely before now.