Cooper: "There'll be no fear from us"

Steve Cooper says his side will be heading into Saturday's clash against Liverpool with 'no fear' as The Reds return to Premier League action at The City Ground.

Forest come into the fixture off the back of a 0-0 draw at Brighton on Monday evening, a performance which earned Cooper's men a first away clean sheet of the campaign.

As preparations continue ahead of hosting Jürgen Klopp's side, Cooper hopes to keep building on the small improvements and says his players will be up for the challenge of facing the 2019/20 champions.

"Hard work and spirit should be a non-negotiable when playing for this football club and we showed a good side to that the other night," said Cooper.

"There's a real desire from the players to perform better than we have and that's an important aspect of progressing.

"Brighton was a good defensive performance, not just in terms of fighting spirit but tactically we were set up and the players did that job well.

"We have to implement our ideas, our style and game plan as best as we can and if we do that we give ourselves a good chance.

"I know everybody has longed for these types of games and we should remind ourselves that we've wanted this for a long time and what we've got to do as a group of staff and players is to focus on how we can match the level of our support by putting in the best performance possible.

"We have to respect Liverpool and the quality players they have, but at the same time we have to commit to our own plan and believe we can get something out of the game.

"We've got to thrive on these matches and be excited by it, playing at home in front of our supporters at our stadium. I want to approach the game thinking about what we can do and there'll be no fear from us."