Steve Cooper says Forest must take care of their own business
Nottingham Forest boss Steve Cooper says his side cannot let the outcome of Everton’s game with Wolves affect preparations for their clash with Arsenal. Forest welcome the Gunners to the City Ground on Saturday night knowing that if Everton lose at Molineux earlier in the day then a victory for them would ensure their survival. Even if they lose against Arsenal they could virtually be safe if West Ham beat Leeds and Leicester lose at Newcastle. But Cooper is wary of the attention being anywhere other than a hugely difficult fixture against Mikel Arteta’s side. “I understand, but the opposite could happen as well,” the Welshman said in reference to Everton losing. “In the end it’s about us trying to get whatever we can out of our game. If stuff outside of us helps us then great but the other teams will be thinking that about our game as well. “We’ve got one of the toughest games you can have, there’s no doubt about that. “There’s a lot of thinking you can do outside of your own game and the impact it might have but you’ve still got to go and play the game and whatever happens before and after the biggest determination of the weekend has to be on what we do. We’ve got one of the toughest games you can have, there’s no doubt about that Steve Cooper “Anything can happen this weekend and that’s why I think that we’ve got to be careful that you don’t let your mind wander too much into good or negative outcomes. That’s dangerous, we’ve got to just focus on the game. “We’re in control of our game and performance, decision-making and what we do. All of the other stuff and what we want to achieve and happen is motivation but you have to focus on what achieves your motivation and outcome. “You’ve got to understand context, of course, and we do but I don’t want the context of ‘what if’s’, good bad or in between that. At the forefront of our mind is what does it take to be at our best because we need to be against Arsenal.”
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Mohamed Salah closes in on 200 club as Liverpool confirm top spot
Liverpool cruised into the Europa League knock-out stages with a match to spare as a 4-0 victory over LASK confirmed their place as group winners. Early goals from Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo were enhanced by a second-half Mohamed Salah penalty – his 199th goal for the club – and an added-time strike by Gakpo as Toulouse’s draw with Union Saint-Gilloise means a dreaded round-of-32 play-off was avoided. That mere fact alone will have delighted manager Jurgen Klopp, whose pre-match press conference had been littered with references to the intense December period ahead, but a club-record 12 points in the group stage shows how dominant the tournament favourites have been. The Reds’ 100 percent home record was extended to 10 games and a third successive Anfield clean sheet for the first time since October 2022 means they have only conceded four times in front of their own fans while scoring 30. In reality, that record was never in danger as the Austrians are the weakest side in the group and that frailty was exposed twice inside three minutes early on by a home side registering nine changes, with only Salah and left-back Kostas Tsimikas retained from the weekend draw at Manchester City. A move which started on the left ended up on the right from where Joe Gomez crossed for Diaz to stoop and power home a twisting header. The second goal came from the same flank as Salah, teed up by Diaz, picked out Gakpo at the far post for the simplest of close-range volleyed finishes. Tsimikas smashed a fierce drive against the crossbar and the overwhelming confidence of the hosts was exemplified by Gomez, who has never scored in eight years at the club, drilling a 25-yard shot just wide. Much of the half appeared to revolve in getting Salah to his double century as the team tried to pick him out at every opportunity, whether he be menacingly poised on the shoulder of the last defender or inside the penalty area. Two chances went begging when his angled shot turned into more of a cross but still evaded Gakpo before he fired tamely at the goalkeeper. Six minutes into the second half Salah finally found the net but he owed it all to Gakpo. The Netherlands international’s short through-ball to Diaz missed his intended target but the Dutchman was alert enough to chase his own pass and somehow get there before goalkeeper Tobias Lawal, who brought him down. Lawal showed a similar lack of reaction in watching Salah tuck the penalty into the corner of the net without even attempting a dive. That was enough to put the result beyond doubt but the feeling was there were more goals to be had as Gakpo hit the base of a post from outside the area, although the Dutchman eventually got a deserved second in added time. The arrival of Darwin Nunez, and to a lesser extent Trent Alexander-Arnold and Curtis Jones, livened up proceedings, with the former putting in one of his now typical all-action hit-and-miss performances. It erred more towards the latter as, after Harvey Elliott’s deflected shot was repelled by the goalkeeper’s legs as he dived the other way, the Uruguay international had one effort diverted wide and then shot straight at Lawal from eight yards. Marin Ljubcic blazed over the visitors’ best chance with only Caoimhin Kelleher to beat and the Liverpool goalkeeper, set for his longest run in the side due to Alisson Becker being sidelined for a fortnight with a hamstring injury, did not have anything to do until the last 20 minutes. When he was called upon he was not flustered, coming out to smother Ibrahim Mustapha, repelling Moses Usor’s shot and producing a reaction stop from LASK’s top scorer Robert Zulj, but even Sunday’s shot-shy visitors Fulham – scorers of only 13 goals in as many games – will provide a sterner test. Read More Alex Moreno stars as Aston Villa progress in Europa Conference League You’ve got to dream big: Lewis Dunk eyes Europa League glory with Brighton David Moyes urges West Ham to finish the job and top Group A Tomas Soucek snatches late winner for West Ham in Serbia Joao Pedro penalty sends Brighton through to Europa League knockout stages Five bad weeks do not define a team – England’s Ben Duckett
2023-12-01 06:22
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Ange Postecoglou hails Tottenham’s ‘outstanding’ pressing in win over Fulham
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou credited his side’s 2-0 win over Fulham to their “outstanding” pressing after they returned to the top of the Premier League. Goals from Son Heung-min and James Maddison confirmed the three points for the hosts at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Postecoglou also praised the contribution of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who started in place of the suspended Yves Bissouma. “I thought our pressing was outstanding the whole game and maybe in the first half we could have got one or two more to put the game to bed,” Postecoglou said. “I thought Pierre was good and he’s been good in every game he’s played for us and he’s been put in some difficult situations and handled them well, he’s very experienced. “I thought in the first half in particular we stayed calm on the ball and had some good tempo. Like I said I thought our pressing was outstanding all game and I thought he was a big part of that. “He made interceptions for both goals and yeah it was important to have him in there, his experience coming in because Bissouma has been very important for us and in such a crucial role but I thought he was excellent.” Spurs took their foot off the gas after their second goal, which invited pressure from Fulham, who had their chances to score late on. And the former Australia manager was “disappointed” with his side’s second-half efforts. He added: “I’m really disappointed with the second half, we were nowhere near the levels we have been all year and we have got to make sure we stay disciplined in our approach because the keeper made a couple of great saves to keep the clean sheet and within the context we should have had a much better control of the game. “I’m not trying to make a point, it’s just what I saw. I thought we were really wasteful with the ball in the second half. We took some liberties with taking extra touches. “I’ve been around long enough to know if you try to take liberties, you’ll get dragged down pretty quickly. “I’m not going to let the fact that we’ve won the game disguise the opportunity there for us to improve. “In the second half, with the ball we weren’t anywhere near the levels we’ve already shown this year and there was no real reason for it. It wasn’t as if the opposition did anything different. It was more self-inflicted. “My role in that was to give feedback to the players. That’s what they want. They want to get better, they want to improve, I’ve got some stuff there to show them.”Centre-back Calvin Bassey gave the ball away in the 54th minute and Tottenham punished the mistake through Maddison, doubling his side’s lead.And Marco Silva admitted he was disappointed with the manner in which Fulham conceded the second goal.He said: “We were punished by the mistakes that we made. “What disappointed me was the second goal. At half-time we spoke and we conceded a similar goal in the second half. We were punished again with the same type of goal.” Read More Mikel Arteta hopes to be talking about football after Arsenal’s trip to Sevilla Jean Kleyn: RWC final with South Africa ‘outside realm of thinking’ months ago Joe Root acknowledges growing uncertainty surrounding future of ODI cricket 5 things we learned from England’s progress through the Rugby World Cup Jonny May backs ‘genius’ Steve Borthwick to crack the code of rugby with England Muddled selection, ageing squad and no new blood – England’s World Cup problems
2023-10-24 07:22
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