Marsch exit puts Forest and Cooper on list of teams and managers who forced PL sackings

Nottingham Forest and Steve Cooper claimed their first Premier League manager scalps after Leeds sacked Jesse Marsch following defeat at the City Ground.

The following is a rundown of managers who were in charge of the last opponent a coach faced before losing their job. On the rare occasion a manager was sacked after winning (think Daniel Farke at Norwich in 2021/22), that instance is not included; we only want results so damaging that the manager in question had to go soon after. And firings during the season only, please.

Klopp is not the grim reaper of the top flight just yet. And please, never let Liverpool appoint the current leader…

Managers who induced sackings

1 – 53 different managers
From Ron Atkinson, who induced the first managerial sacking in Premier League history when Chelsea axed Ian Porterfield after a 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa in February 1993, to Steve Cooper, who forced Leeds’ hand when Nottingham Forest beat Jesse Marsch’s side 1-0 in February 2023, 53 different coaches have proven to be the last straw for a Premier League manager.

2 – Phil Brown
(Luiz Felipe Scolari at Chelsea and Gary Megson at Bolton)

Alan Curbishley
(Chris Hutchings at Bradford and Peter Taylor at Leicester)

Eddie Howe
(Steve McClaren at Newcastle and Ralph Hasenhuttl at Southampton)

Paul Jewell
(Egil Olsen at Wimbledon and Iain Dowie at Charlton)

Paul Lambert
(Les Reed at Southampton and Brian McDermott at Reading)

Steve McClaren
(Walter Smith at Everton and Terry Venables at Leeds)

Brendan Rodgers
(Rene Meulensteen at Fulham and Manuel Pellegrini at West Ham)

3 – Steve Bruce
(Paul Ince at Blackburn, Paul Lambert at Aston Villa and Javi Gracia at Watford)

Ralph Hasenhuttl
(Claudio Ranieri at Fulham, Quique Sanchez Flores at Watford and Dean Smith at Aston Villa)

Roy Hodgson
(Mick McCarthy at Wolves, Andre Villas-Boas at Chelsea and Claude Puel at Leicester)

David Moyes
(Nigel Pearson at Watford, Bruno Lage at Wolves and Frank Lampard at Everton)

Stuart Pearce
(Graeme Souness at Newcastle, Mick McCarthy at Sunderland and Chris Coleman at Fulham)

Tony Pulis
(Paul Hart at Portsmouth, Mike Phelan at Hull and Craig Shakespeare at Leicester)

Claudio Ranieri
(Garry Monk at Swansea, Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United)

Dean Smith
(Rafael Benitez at Everton, Claudio Ranieri at Watford and Sean Dyche at Burnley)

Arsene Wenger
(Ruud Gullit at Chelsea, Peter Reid at Sunderland and Ronald Koeman at Everton)

4 – Rafael…