Match Report: Nottingham Forest 1 – 0 Manchester United

Manchester United’s dismal season falters again as they suffer defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground. Anthony Elanga’s early goal from a scintillating solo run was the only one to separate the sides, as United failed to threaten the Forest defence. 

The Red Devils had been chugging along fairly well off the back of two wins and an unbeaten run that extended to mid-February, but a disappointing result ensures once again that this Premier League campaign is all but worthless, certainly one to forget.  

United had a lot of possession but just didn’t have the tools to break down Forest’s strong structure. The Trees were happy without the ball, not attacking, not pressing, but instead working hard to keep their formation and be a hard team to pick apart. Forest waited for and anticipated United mistakes where they would pounce aggressively on the counterattack.

Taiwo Awoniyi had the hard job of replacing the in-form Chris Wood, but did well to hold up play and release Forest’s dangerous attacking talents, particularly Anthony Elanga who was a thorn in United’s side from minute one. 

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And the Swede didn’t waste any time in showing his former club what they are missing, scoring the first goal five minutes in. Straight from a poor United corner, which was cleared, he ran onto the ball at full speed before the centre circle and carried the ball past the halfway line and across the length of the pitch, weaving through a defence that simply couldn’t deal with his speed.

Alejandro Garnacho lunged in weakly as he was left in the dust whilst Mazraoui and Dorgu attempted to block Elanga’s shot as he encroached the box, but the Swede was able to guide his shot between the defenders and past Onana in the bottom right corner to give Forest the early lead.

It was an impressive goal, with the former United man running 85 meters in nine seconds, but the defenders should have been more aggressive. They had opportunities to stop the oncoming force but were too passive and kept backing off rather than coming in for the tackle.  

Despite a United reshuffle early in the second half, switching out both of their defensive midfielders for more aggressive options, they offered even less in attack. Despite 24 shots, very few were even decent chances. The Red Devils weren’t actively terrible, in fact, things seem to be coming together a little more for Amorim tactically, with his team dominating possession and knocking the ball about confidently. The wingbacks are getting more involved in play, whilst their back three look assured and solid.

But their goal-scoring woes haunted them again, an early goal was enough to seal defeat, as they didn’t look like scoring throughout. The Forest keeper didn’t have to make any excellent saves. 

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United’s best chance of the game came in the last minute where Mazraoui’s hoping cross caused mayhem in the box where the ball eventually fell to makeshift striker Harry Maguire, who looked certain to score five yards out until his shot was cleared off the line brilliantly by Murillo, his intervention was as good as a goal for his club. 

Forest are flying high in third whilst the Red Devils sit in lowly 13^th place, now 20 points apart; but most tragically, we knew this game wasn’t important to United’s season. A win here wouldn’t have salvaged anything, even their dignity.

They can now only find value in this awful season in the Europa League, so they must simply cast this defeat out from their minds and focus on their clash against Olympique Lyon next Thursday. 

But first, a Manchester derby approaches this weekend at Old Trafford, where all United can do is look to avoid embarrassment.