Manchester United’s problems worsen after Wood leads Nottingham Forest to victory | Premier League

To Ruben Amorim’s recent catchphrases of ‘suffer’ and ‘storm’, the Manchester United manager can add ‘defend’ after a horror show from the rearguard that accounted for all three of Nottingham Forest’s goals.

As Amorim mentioned before kick-off, the stormy conditions were no excuse as the Old Trafford Bowl provides shelter while André Onana, Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martínez and Leny Yoro are elite players.

But Amorim’s goalkeeper and his three centre-backs made mistakes that left United chasing the game throughout, and although they finished strongly, they lacked the finesse needed to secure a late equalizer – Martínez’s flickering volley was their next miss. Pointing out that United are not a “big team” at the moment, Amorim prepared for performances like this. Compared to Forest’s success, England’s 20-time record champions will remain small for some time.

Amorim has also spoken about learning more about his players. Well, after both goals came from corners in Wednesday’s 2-0 defeat to Arsenal, Martínez and De Ligt failed to impress, losing Nikola Milenkovic for Elliot Anderson’s second-minute assist. The Serb’s free header beat a standing Onana.

The head coach is also guilty, as the job description includes practicing resistance to set pieces. The fact that someone of his reputation controlled three consecutive goals from corners is a negative against him: to his credit, Amorim took all the blame afterwards.

The 39-year-old’s selection during the week was also questionable. After Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee scored twice in United’s last home game, the 4-0 win over Everton on Sunday, Amorim left them out at Arsenal and did the same here.

Instead, Rasmus Højlund and Alejandro Garnacho remained at the forefront. The former, who came on as a substitute for Zirkzee at number 9, wasted a golden chance when Bruno Fernandes burst forward and tapped out Garnacho, who swung the ball over to the Dane. He completely missed a close-range header and Forest escaped.

As in the early stages at Arsenal, United whirled the ball around and pushed their opponents around, leading to the equaliser. De Ligt found Fernandes, who passed the ball to Manuel Ugarte. He pushed Garnacho behind a dawdling rearguard, the Argentine overran the ball, Matz Sels blocked his shot and Højlund’s finish found the gaping goal.

On his debut, Yoro was the last of Amorim’s three central defenders to be beaten out of the air at a set piece. This happened from a Murillo free-kick that was spiraled into United’s penalty area: the Frenchman was beaten by Ryan Yates, who turned the ball back and Jota Silva’s header hit the crossbar.

Inches deeper and Amorim answered questions about another dead-ball concession, and there was another close call when Murillo missed after a pass from the right.

Towards the end of the half, Garnacho sank a shot and Fernandes crashed a free-kick onto the crossbar, but these were moments when previous control was just a memory.

Forest’s second goal came in the second minute of the second half and resulted from the unhappiness of Fernandes and Onana. The United captain aimed for Yoro and spotted Callum Hudson-Odoi instead.

The winger passed to Morgan Gibbs-White and, although his shot was twisted, it was marginal and Onana still let the ball through. 2-1 soon became 3-1 for the impressive visitors, and this time Yoro, De Ligt, Martínez and Onana all excelled. It was too easy: Gibbs-White pushed the ball to the far post, Yoro failed to challenge Chris Wood and his well-aimed header went wide – a farce from De Ligt, Martínez and Onana, who seemed to blame each other.

Amorim was disgusted and dragged Garnacho to Rashford. United had just over half an hour to pull it out of the fire and the change worked straight away. A great volley pass from Fernandes brought Amad Diallo into the Forest penalty area. He waited, brought the Portuguese back into possession, and a pirouette and finish into the left corner was admirable.

In the end, Zirkzee, Rashford and Højlund were the top three, but to no avail. Amorim’s explanation for omitting the first two teams after their game-winning performances against Everton was that he had made a tailor-made selection for the opposition. Yet United have lost twice since then.