Manchester United’s terrible 1-2 loss to Forest, one star and three disasters
Man United failed to muster any positive momentum over the weekend against an easier opponent in Nottingham Forest, even though they defeated Aston Villa 3-2 following a furious, late comeback against one of the Champions League contenders.
Under Erik ten Hag’s direction, United was humiliated and devoid of creativity once more this season, losing 2-1 to a team they should always be favored to beat, especially away from home.
The highlights and lowlights of Manchester United’s defeat to Nottingham Forest are listed here.
Failure: Antony
Antony is a 95 million euro investment who is so ineffective that Manchester United would be better served by ten men instead of someone who clings to the ball all the time, isolates the team on the touchline, and produces zero.
Star: Garnacho Alejandro
The youthful Alejandro Garnacho, who scored an incredible bicycle kick this season, once again made a crucial play for Manchester United, giving them some hope on this gloomy evening.
After a poor pass from Matt Turner, Garnacho sprinted to slide in, reclaim the ball, and then hit a brilliant sideways pass to Marcus Rashford, who was waiting to put the ball in the far corner.
Negative: Bruno Fernandes
The miserable 2023–24 season for Bruno Fernandes continues.
The Portuguese international was terrible in this defeat to Nottingham Forest, failing to have any kind of attacking impact aside from almost scoring off a lucky deflection, even though he did not receive another card.
Fernandes almost always made mistakes when he tried a one-on-one and mishandled a lot of easy passes. He neglected to sprint into the center of an open penalty box, squandering a brilliant backheel from Rashford.
Scott McTominay failed.
Although Scott McTominay didn’t look particularly horrible when he entered the game in the second half, his repeated poor positional blunders damaged the club and demonstrated his limited ability to be more than a squad player.
Keep an eye on his placement and the area he helped abandon for those two objectives. McTominay needs to adopt Casemiro’s defensive strategy and play a more proactive game. What United need from a DM is that.
