First of all, fair play to Forest. They absolutely deserved the win. They came to Old Trafford with a plan, executed it and got the win.

But I almost feel like that plan was to frustrate us and eventually, United will beat themselves. That is something we've done many times before.

And also, how much did they pay Onana 😅?

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I do believe that it's been a good thing for Amorim to see the real United early on but this defeat has gone a little too far.

A poor draw at Ipswich in his opening game was enough and while losing to Arsenal wasn't great, we were heavy underdogs in that one despite some progression in our performance when looking at that first half.

However, to concede 3 goals against Forest at home and deserve to lose is completely unacceptable.

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The game began basically from where we left off against Arsenal. We conceded 2 goals from corners after poor defending at The Emirates, we started this game off by conceding from a corner after poor defending.

At least we're staying consistent 🤷‍♂️.

1-0 to Forest in 2 minutes.

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United then played their best football in the entire match post this goal, almost as if it was a wake up call. The problem is, we always seem to need these to well, wake up.

After some good play in the midfield between Bruno and Ugarte, the Uruguayan - who was United's best player - played a brilliant through ball that got Garnacho in on goal. His shot was saved and Hojlund was there to tap it into an empty net.

1-1 and the game was back on.

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United started to control the game a lot more from that point but even still, Forest looked the more threatening and it wasn't because of counter-attacks, which post-match, Nuno Espirito Santo said was one of the areas where they needed to do better, but rather, set-pieces.

A couple of crosses into the box saw a lot of panic from United which could've resulted in more goals for Forest. One of those crosses flew across goal and could have gone anywhere and another that actually saw a header headed back across goal which came to Jota Silva who headed it onto the bar. Two headers won by Forest in the box and they almost score from it 😐.

At this point, just put the ball in the box and United shit themselves.

Bruno then had a free kick deflect onto the bar towards the end of the first half but that was as good as it got in terms of United trying to take the lead.

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Things got even worse in the second half as 2 minutes in (the same as the first), Morgan Gibbs-White makes it 2-1 after two catastrophic mistakes by Bruno and Onana.

The skipper tried a pass back to Yoro who was trying to make the forward run only for the ball to be played sloppily behind the defender. That turned into a great pass for Gibbs-White who found himself in time and space and thought 'why not?'

It was a poor strike as it was down the middle of the goal yet somehow managed to find it's way past Onana.

It was literally straight at the goalkeeper. There was no defelction. It was from far out. There was no one blocking his way.

This was reminiscent of David de Gea and some of his classic cock ups.

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Unfortunately though, Onana wasn't done there as between him, De Ligt and Martinez, they should've stopped the third from going in.

A ball comes in to the back post and Chris Wood gets his head on it above Yoro. But with no pace and it looping, it was a simple ball for anyone to clear or the goalkeeper to come and collect.

They all thought it would be a good idea to leave it only for the ball to end up in the net.

3-1 and disaster.

However, with over 30 minutes to go, there was still enough time for United to get back into it. The only issue is that we once again, lacked in attacking prowess.

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Then, on the hour mark, up stepped the skipper - who was having a very indifferent game - to make it 3-2 after some good wing play by Amad down the right. He got his 4th assist in the league under Amorim.

This is where it felt that we've a chance to turn things around.

But that proper reaction never really came to pass as Forest sat in their defensive shape and continued to frustrate us. Amorim then brought on Zirkzee and Mount after having already brought on Maguire, Mazraoui and Rashford to rotate and also affect the game in an attacking sense with some of those changes.

Other than the two defenders though, the forwards made no difference at all. If anything, we probably got slightly worse.

United's woes were summed up by a seriously underperforming Dalot who in added time decided it was a good idea to cut in and shoot from all of 30 yards out. That strike went into row Z. Bro can't even score an open goal and wants to try something that extravagant.

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The game ends 3-2 and Amorim suffers his first home defeat as United boss, his first home defeat since February 2023 and back-to-back losses in the Premier League. United remain in the 'sad' position of 13th and fall further behind in the race for top 4, if that was a goal of the club's to begin with when Amorim came in.

After the Arsenal game, the manager said he saw a lot of the same mistakes in that 2-0 loss as he saw in the 4-0 win over Everton last week. After todays' defeat, the boss said: “The same words I had against Everton I have today. Continue focus on our performances, we need to improve in a lot of aspects in the game and do the same things tomorrow in training.”

Clearly something is not right for the players to be making the same errors as before.

As a manager though, you can only do so much. Once the players go out onto the field, it's on them. That sloppiness, lack of care on the ball, not working hard with and without it and mistakes like the ones from Bruno, Onana and Martinez, isn't something that you can pin on the manager.

I wonder whether Amorim knew that the job was going to be this hard. He and that team has a lot of work to do. There weren't many positives to takeaway from this game.

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Ratings

Onana - 3

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Yoro - 6

De Ligt - 6

Martinez - 4

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Amad - 6

Mainoo - 6

Ugarte - 7 MOTM

Dalot - 4

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Bruno - 5

Garnacho - 5

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Hojlund - 5

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Mazraoui - 6

Maguire - 6

Zirkzee - 4

Rashford - 4

Mount - 4

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Ruben Amorim - 6

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Final Thoughts

As I said at the start, this defeat and performance was a little too far. Amorim saw the true United in his opening match as well as in spells in his folliwng three. That was more than enough shit from these players.

Losing at home to Forest and conceding 3 stupid goals is over doing things.

I thought Amorim more or less knew his strongest XI. I thought he played more or less his strongest XI today barring a couple of players.

I think he may have to rethink that.

Plzen on Thursday can't come quick enough. We need to get over this defeat asap.

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Background Image: Diogo Dalot and Ola Aina in Man Utd 2-3 Nottingham Forest | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)