Nottingham Forest faced Fulham in the Premier League Wednesday, hoping to extend their unbeaten run to six games since the start of the season.
Unfortunately, things ended in vain as Forest were once again left to rue their bad luck with VAR, losing 1-0 after a Raul Jimenez penalty shortly after halftime.
Still, Forest has had a good start to the season, with nine points from six games, which is an improvement over the club’s first two seasons in the Premier League.
Nuno Espirito Santo cannot avoid criticism following yesterday’s defeat. His plan to start with four central midfielders failed, as Forest did little to trouble Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
At the City Ground, it was a difficult watch for Forest fans, and while the game plan was working at halftime, something needed to change to get the Reds to produce more.
What happened in the 74th minute was inconceivable, and the Forest head coach may wish he could have that moment in the game again.
Nuno Espirito Santo made a 74th-minute mistake against Fulham.
With the Cottagers ahead 1-0, they were never going to throw too much forward, and the game ended with the Londoners taking the points.
As a result, Espirito Santo elected to play Ryan Yates as the sole center midfielder, with Jota Silva filling in when Forest lost control.
However, there was an issue with this choice. Okay, Yates was the captain, but one of the issues was that he had a yellow card, which hampered his ability to break things up in the final moments.
Another issue was that by losing James Ward-Prowse, Forest would no longer have the luxury of a world-class set-piece taker in their ranks while the Reds threw everything at them.
Ward-Prowse should have stayed on the pitch, and it’s no wonder that Forest won multiple corners and free kicks in dangerous wide positions after the midfielder was substituted.
The player is not immune to being subbed, as no one is. However, in this game, Forest will always require something exceptional, and Ward-Prowse has it in his locker from dead ball situations.
Forest must find a way to include Ward-Prowse for 90 minutes.
Ward-Prowse joined the Reds on loan from West Ham for the season, and he scored seven goals and assisted 11 others in 2023/24.
He’s the type of player who can create things from midfield, and he had some terrific moments in open play yesterday.
Ward-Prowse concluded the game with 92.9% of his passes to Forest players and three successful crosses, according to Who Scored.
He was also playing well defensively, recording two blocks and drawing one foul from the opposition during his time on the field.
Okay, there were still some aspects of his game that he could work on, but it seemed like a massive error for Espirito Santo to remove the guy who is a magician in set pieces.
His job now is to establish a strategy on which he can rely when the chips are down and Forest is attempting to force their way back into the game.
Ward-Prowse is unlikely to want to be substituted when Forest are still in contention for a point, and we expect to see the midfielder play 90 minutes soon.
