@CroJack ... points well taken.
Interesting! What do you put that down to?
A couple of things.
First of all, we have changed formation. We used to play a more conservative 3-5-2 and 3-4-1-2. The first one with a flat 3 in the midfield Grimes-Fulton-Smith, and the second one with double pivot in the defensive midfield Grimes-Fulton or Grimes-Smith with Dhanda as attacking midfielder. When Hourihane signed for us we suddenly switched to a more attacking-minded 3-1-4-2 with our wing-backs and two atacking midfielders Hourihane and Dhanda pushing up. I have many screenshot from our games that prove a switch in our formation. Our coaching staff obviously concluded that with Hourihane's arrival we were able to play a more attacking football.
The trouble with Forest, Huddersfield and Coventry games was partly in a big gap between our back three and the front six. So instead of passing from the back, our back three were constantly trying to bypass that gap by hoffing it. Long balls after long balls and a loss of possession as the result.
Another problem was a lack of defensive discipline from Hourihane.
He was, according to Whoscored, our worst rated player in these games.
The final problem was that the big gap we had between our back three and front six caused us a lot of trouble off the ball - Huddersfield punished us with their counter-attacks, Forest and Coventry were not able to exploit that weakness.
Finally, against Bristol, our back three line was high, so we were able to pass the ball from the back, and Hourihane showed much improved defensive discipline. Suddenly, everything clicked, and we played great passing and attacking football. We lost the game due to three defensive errors: one sloppy pass from Hourihane with a failed clearance from Guehi, and two Woodman's errors. We didn't collapse as a team, it's Woodman who collapsed.
One more thing. If I was Cooper I would play Guehi, Cabango, and Latibeaudiere as our three centre-backs. They were simply excellent against Bristol.