Indeed, we actually saw a decent all round game from Amorim's team despite the defeat. There was progress in some aspects of the game that he can take away as positives yet some old habits returned.
1. Some good passages of play
The good part of last night was the fact that I thought we didn't actually play too bad.
We've seen far worse from United as we were in control of the game, dictated most of the play, had much more possession (which isn't a surprise when playing against Forest) and the stats were all in our favor.
There were some passages of play that displayed the improvement with this team. One particular instance was in the first half when United found themselves in a tight space in our left-back position. However, through quick, incisive passing, we worked the ball out of that space and into Dorgu who was running down the left flank. Unfortunately, his first time cross was gathered by Matz Sels before reaching Garnacho who would've had a tap-in.
That was good play and an example of this system and players working.
This isn't something that we usually see with United whether it was because of us or the way Forest approached the game but it was still good to see and something for us to build upon moving forward.
Amorim said after the game that "I can see the progress. For sure. But now we must focus on winning games.
We should have won this game vs Forest...not even drawn, but in the end we have lost three points."
2. Can't cross
This is something that I mentioned quite a while ago and it doesn't matter whether it's from set-pieces or standard open play.
United for some reason, despite having several players with enough quality to put in a decent ball, don't. Bruno, Eriksen, the wing-backs or anyone seems to struggle when it comes to trying to find a teammate in the box.
A lot of the deliveries not only are way off the mark, they are often overhit, underhit, don't pass the first man or the ball in is floated or ballooned rather than hit with any venom or curve.
This gives us very little chance of actually creating any opportunity from them. We were wasteful because of such situations as very little came from the 37 crosses we had. The only one that caused some trouble for Forest was late on when Maguire managed to win the ball before his shot was cleared off the line.
The corners were also nowhere near the quality needed to put Forest under any pressure. They too were lackluster in terms of how they were delivered making it very easy for our hosts to win the ball. We even conceded from our own corner with that Elanga strike, which was almost a carbon copy of the goal we conceded against them last season at Old Trafford.
United had 10 corners and failed to make anything happen from all of them.
3. Dorgu and Garnacho don't work
Most would say this is because of Garnacho's selfishness (which I wouldn't disagree with) but they are two young players and in Dorgu's case, is still a new signing. Putting them on the same flank was maybe a mistake from Amorim.
Not only did the pair not really have any connection, both had poor performances besides.
Garnacho was hogging a lot of the ball always trying to cut in and shoot and very rarely looking to play the pass to Dorgu. The reason for this might have been the Dane kept giving the ball away cheaply.
With the way he was carrying on, it seemed as if he had quite forgotten that United were wearing the blue kit last night rather than the red.
This is maybe another criticism on the manager for thinking that this could work. Of course we'd rather the left-footer as the LWB but clearly something was off and Amorim never really looked to change things.
If he wants this system to work, he has to make sure that all the players are understanding of their roles in the team.
And for fucks sake can someone please tell Garnacho to STOP BLOODY SHOOTING!
4. Amorim got it wrong?
I felt that the starting lineup wasn't the worst but by breaking up the Zirkzee, Garnacho and Hojlund front three and playing Bruno further forward, kind of disrupted the rhythm and broke the connection those players were having.
Zirkzee looks a lot better as a number 10 as he is more in the game. He gets more of the ball, he can make things happen and as he likes to drop deeper, it means that we won't have a vacancy at striker as he is playing slightly deeper and we will have an actual centre-forward on the field to occupy that area up front.
Garnacho also appeared to be improving under Amorim before the break with that other CAM position looking like a position where he could maybe find a place in this system that which we thought he would struggle to.
Hojlund scored and assisted in his last two appearances for us and even got a goal for Denmark yet the manager chose to bench him at a time when he probably needed to keep him in the side. It's weird to think that when he should've benched Hojlund, he kept playing him thorugh terrible form.
Bruno was also looking like a more disciplined player from a deeper role whilst still managing to effect the game in terms of goals and assists. He appears to have become a little more accustomed to the number 8 position but for some reason, Amorim decided to change all of this.
Casemiro and Ugarte wasn't something that I was opposed to but in the end, it turned out to be the wrong call in my opinion. We didn't actually need two CDMs against a side that plays counter-attacking football.
On top of that, none of his substitutions actually made a difference. Maguire was the only one who made any impact and that was because we were just hoofing long balls into the box and with Maguire's incredible aerial ability, he did cause problems for Forest.
5. Need more experience
I don't mean just age but also in wherewithal or the street smarts.
I guess the two can go hand in hand because when looking at Forest's goal, in that moment, someone needed to take one for the team. Between Dorgu and Garnacho who were the two closest to Elanga, either one needed to take him down or pull his shirt just to stop him and then take the yellow. Perhaps their ages of 20-years-old played a part in this.
Taking Elanga down here may not be the right thing to do but that situation reminded me of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer all those years ago. You know which challenge I'm talking about.
We sometimes do need to be a little more street smart as we can be a bit too nice.
But the age profile of a lot of our players is also a problem especially taking into account that the club seem to be on this policy of wanting to sign those in the age range of 18-22.
They don't have that experience yet and at this stage of their career, they are potentials, some with more potential than others, but potentials all the same.
United need to start getting in players for the now because last night was a good example of what can happen when you don't have that experience and quality.
Elanga's goal and no threat in attack shows where we have to improve and bring in those who are ready to go into the team straight away. There's no point signing those that might be ready in the future because there are no guarantees.
Background Image: Anthony Elanga and Bruno Fernandes during Nottingham Forest 1-0 Man Utd | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)