Forest's Midfield Leaving Too Much Space In Behind

As Forest chased the game at Old Trafford - they continued to leave space between the defensive and midfield lines, and it was only a matter of time until they were punished.

An apology from Howard Webb doesn’t change the way the second half at Old Trafford unfolded. Forest were forced to start chasing a game that they should’ve been drawing.

Vitor Pereira has improved Forest so much since he took charge in February, but perhaps the biggest issue he’s had is how open Forest are when they’re chasing the game. In fact, even when they were level at 1-1, Forest were still far too open at times.

Anderson makes a decision to press Amad right on the touchline - he doesn’t relaly need to do this, and when he doesn’t regain the ball, we can see that his team mates don’t react quick enough to pick up the spaces he’s leaving behind.

Ideally Dominguez closes this space to make it almost impossible for Man Utd to play their way out toward the middle of the pitch. He’s wary of Bruno behind him though - that’s where Forest have to start reacting better. Neco Williams should really be yelling at Hutchinson for him to cover Cunha, so he can tuck in closer to Milenkovic.

None of these things happen, Man Utd play past Anderson too easily into the space, and they get the ball wide quickly before scoring the controversial second goal.

Pereira’s Attacking Gamble Fails To Pay Off

Harshly down a goal, Forest try to dial up the pressure in all phases. They clearly played with a bit more freedom here compared to what we’ve seen in other Premier League games of late, but Man Utd gave them plenty of warnings about what was soon to come.

They look to play out from the back here, but the ball long is off-target and Man Utd regain possession in their own half pretty easily. Gibbs-White does notice the pass into Casemiro (who is checking his shoulder intelligently as the video is freeze-framed), but he is a second too late to close the angle on Maguire’s pass.

Two quick passes from Casemiro and then Bruno force Milenkovic to twist and turn his way out of the play, as Mbeumo misses a golden opportunity to extend the lead.