Manchester United were left cursing their defensive shortcomings as they slipped to a chastening home defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest.
Their weakness from set-piece situations came to the fore once again as Forest’s Nikola Milenkovic thundered home from an early corner before Rasmus Hojlund equalised. Two minutes into the second half, Morgan Gibbs-White’s shot befuddled Andre Onana and then the United defence failed to deal with Chris Wood’s looping back-post header.
Bruno Fernandes cut the deficit but Ruben Amorim’s side were unable to find an equaliser as they suffered a second successive Premier League loss.
Laurie Whitwell and Charlotte Harpur break down a disappointing evening at Old Trafford for United.
Set pieces are becoming United’s Achilles’ heel
Having felt the full force of Arsenal’s excellence from corners on Wednesday, it took Nottingham Forest less than 90 seconds to inflict more set-piece pain on United.
It was so simple from a Forest perspective. Elliot Anderson curled the ball to the six-yard box and Milenkovic easily outjumped his marker Lisandro Martinez to head home. It was a curious match-up, with Milenkovic measuring 6ft 5in (196cm) and Martinez 5ft 9in. To compound matters, Martinez did not even jump, deciding his best bet was to try to put off Milenkovic with a push.
Matthijs de Ligt, who is accomplished in the air, was nearby but in no position to challenge Milenkovic. United’s assistant head coach Carlos Fernandes, standing in the technical area, turned away in frustration.
Milenkovic heads in Nottingham Forest’s opener (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
United have now conceded seven goals from corners in the Premier League this season, with no team letting in more. They’ve also conceded a greater proportion of goals from set-pieces overall (50 per cent) than any other team.
Fernandes, Amorim’s No 2, will stand pitchside whenever there is a dead ball in a dangerous area, taking over from Andreas Georgson, who was appointed in the summer with a focus on set pieces. It is clear there is work to do.
In an attacking sense, United went close with a smart free kick when Bruno Fernandes picked out Amad, whose shot was blocked near the line, but, defensively, Forest nearly scored again from a corner. The ball skipped through to Jota Silva at the back post, who teed up Murillo, and his shot went narrowly wide. Nuno Espirito Santo gave a fist pump celebration in mistaken belief ball had gone in.
Laurie Whitwell
Just how bad was United’s defending?
Amorim’s Sporting CP were known for their electric starts in Portugal, but his United side went down within two minutes here.
United conceded an unnecessary corner — a recurring theme from their 2-0 defeat against Arsenal — and Milenkovic towered above Martinez, who was rooted to the ground.
The hosts responded well and asserted more control. Their equaliser was just reward for patient build-up as Fernandes carved through the heart of Forest’s midfield.
But a misjudgement from goalkeeper Onana put United on the back foot from the off in the second half as Gibbs-White’s shot wrong-footed the Cameroonian, who had been in solid form recently. It should have been a routine save.
Equally, Forest’s third should have been easily dealt with. Instead, United did not clear Gibbs-White’s first cross and Wood’s looping header back across goal did not seem overly threatening given there were two defenders, De Ligt and Martinez, to deal with the danger. But Martinez, positioned at the back post, let the ball roll past him in farcical fashion.
Defensive errors were glaring, costly and ultimately unnecessary.
Wood’s header creeps in (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Charlotte Harpur
Amorim’s ‘mad dogs’ need to find more bite
Ahead of this game, Amorim called for his players to run like “mad dogs” if they were to ever stand a chance of winning the Premier League.
“It’s impossible to win the Premier League without a team like that: who, with every moment, runs back, runs forward,” he said. “Even with the best starting XI on the planet, without running they will not win anything. That is very clear. If we want to win the Premier League, we have to run like mad dogs.”
Those words came to mind midway through the first half, with United trailing and De Ligt on the ball. There was little movement ahead of him, prompting Onana to wave his hands dramatically, imploring for someone to make a run.
Eventually, Fernandes peeled into space and De Ligt found him with a good pass. Fernandes flicked it first time to Manuel Ugarte and suddenly, United had space. Ugarte advanced, found Alejandro Garnacho in the box, and his shot, saved by Matz Sels, fell to the feet of Hojlund for a tap-in.
Amorim gives Hojlund some pointers (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)
The same injection of speed got United their second goal. Again, Fernandes was the catalyst. Ugarte won the ball in midfield and Fernandes swept a pass out to Amad, then chased up the pitch to arrive in the box for the return pass.
His shot was superb; the midfielder leaning backwards but getting power and direction. Fernandes is the subject of criticism but he undoubtedly commits to the “mad dog” ethos — to such a degree Amorim took him off on 75 minutes to send on Mason Mount’s fresh legs.
But Amorim says United also need to run back with more intensity, and there were a couple of moments where his instructions were evident: notably in a first-half Forest counter that ended with Martinez nudging Gibbs-White off balance.
Later, Hojlund sprinted back from centre-forward to intercept a Forest attack and then managed to make it to the edge of the box by the time Garnacho took a shot, which flew tamely into Sels’ hands. Hojlund pointed his fingers to his temples as if to urge his team-mate to think smarter next time.
Laurie Whitwell
What did Ruben Amorim say?
We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference.
What next for Manchester United?
Thursday, December 12: Viktoria Plzen (A), Europa League, 5.45pm GMT, 12.45pm ET
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(Top photo: Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images)
