Cooper’s tactics outdid Russell Martin on the day

As Nottingham Forest took away all three points from Swansea on a miserable wet afternoon in South Wales, it was clear that the tactics employed by Steve Cooper on the day were set to expose the weaknesses in Swansea and they did that.

It is fair to say that Russell Martin can certainly point to missed opportunities – particularly those that came the way of Olivier Ntcham and Joel Piroe in the first half – but Cooper had set his side up to expose the frailities in the Swans side and he did that well.

The Ben Cabango on the left side of a defence is not working and the Wales international was exposed on several occasions for his lack of pace in that area – two of those occasions it cost us as a goal.   It was relatively clear from the off that this was an outlet that Forest thought they could capitalise on.

Forest set themselves up like a very typical Steve Cooper side.  Well organised in defence, resolute in everything that they do and he was certainly happy for his side to surrender the possession advantage in return for holding their line and making it difficult for the Swans.   However, with the pace he has in his side then he was happy to see his side hit us on the break and it certainly was the case that they were happier to take on the side that was left to Cabango and Manning to try and defend and they did it with some ease.

The downside was watching the play acting of the Cooper side.   They were certainly more streetwise than any of the Swansea players but conned the referee on more than one occasion with a tactical falling to the floor to gain a free kick.  For all the times it happened during the match I couldn’t help but think of Connor Roberts or Ayew in the two years under Cooper.   Is it a tactic the manager encourages?   It’s distinctly possible.

Cooper had no doubt set his side up to play in a certain way yesterday and they repaid him several times over with their performance.    This was a battle between two managers still in the early stages of their league management careers but Cooper’s additional experience shone through in the game and he certainly won the battle with Martin both on and off the pitch over the whole game.

Cooper would have arrived in South Wales very aware of the style of play of Russell Martin’s side and also clearly aware of the strengths and weaknesses of many of yesterday’s starting line up for the Swans.  And when you are that aware of it you can play to the weaknesses and nullify the strengths and that is exactly what he did.

From Russell Martin’s perspective these are the games that he needs to learn from.  He talks much about the desire to continue playing “our way” but sometimes you have to play to counter the opposition and that is a lesson he must, unfortunately for us, take from Steve Cooper who did just that.

Martin was decisive when we went two down in introducing Obafemi but he is a player not fitting into Swansea at all and he spent forty minutes being largely anonymous as the Swans failed to make any real mark or dent in the resolute defence the visitors were putting in front of us.

The Swans boss remains new to management – we need to remember it is not much more than twelve months into his career as a manager – but he does need to look at those with more experience and remember there is more than one way to get a result.  Having a philosophy on how to play is spot on but be brave to change it when it is necessary to do so.

He also needs to learn from the defensive mistakes that have blighted us in the past few weeks.  Playing out from the back is all well and good but you have to be less careless with it and know exactly when sometimes it is best to put your laces through the ball and clear your lines giving you valuable seconds to regroup.

Nobody needs to hit the panic button just yet.   We knew this was a season of transition – Steve Cooper knew it too that is one of the reasons he wanted out in the summer – and there have been some very good and some very bad days already during that season.    The January window will dictate much about what the second half of the season looks like and then Martin will be fully judged on having a full transfer window behind him and the chance to structure his own squad.

And if the current Swans boss can take some lessons from the former Swans boss along the way then that in itself is no bad thing.