Stuart Pearce speaks out on nottingham forest pressure bound on Steve Cooper

Personally, no,” he said. “I’ve seen how he’s united the football club. In regard to the fans, I think the fans have got his backing, which is brilliant to see and to be fair I think the way the away games certainly have panned out too, the difficulty of the away games.

“I think where they are in the division at the moment they are probably three points short of having a decent start to the season or the perception of a decent start to the season. They’re nowhere near the relegation zone. I don’t think Forest have been anywhere near there since the season started in the summer, so I think the club are still on an upward spot and I think Steve Cooper is.

“He’s still trying to bed in new players. I mean how he deals with some of them with the amount of players that have come in over the last couple of seasons has been nothing short of sensational. So I still think he’s dealing with that again. Don’t forget Brennan [Johnson] left as well which will affect him. He was a big player for Forest and has been for a couple of years.”

Pearce also pointed out the Reds’ counter-attacking threat this season as well as raising the recent victory over high-flying Aston Villa as to why any reported pressure on Cooper should be discredited.

He said: “Early season, when I watched them at United and Arsenal, the threat on the counter was sensational. It’s just keeping games tight. I’m sure the 0-0 at Crystal Palace a couple of weeks ago would have been pleasing for Steve to keep a clean sheet. Probably he’ll be looking and thinking that we need to keep a few more clean sheets.

“The Villa victory was sensational. No one’s beating Villa at the moment. That was some victory so to even suggest that Steve Cooper is under any form of pressure is outlandish.”

Forest face Everton on Saturday before away games at Fulham and Wolves over the next week. And Pearce is in doubt over how important the next three games are for the Reds whilst raising the possibility that Cooper’s team may have been “caught between” different styles of play this season.

“I think maybe they might be getting caught between being more expansive and being a little bit more cautious and defensive away and they’re paying the penalty at home because I don’t think their away form has been too bad and their points tally on the road is not too bad,” he said.

“They’re coming into a run of games now, including this game at Fulham next week, that will be critical. I’m sure Steve will be saying ‘we can’t afford to lose this game’ because we’re going to give rival points.”

When asked if he would ever consider returning to the club in some capacity one day, Pearce does not rule out any future involvement whilst acknowledging that they are coping well in the Premier League under Cooper and owner Evangelos Marinakis.