Manchester United lost 2-1 against Nottingham Forest in their final match of 2023, finishing the year with 31 points from 20 matches, with nine losses and in seventh-place, nine points behind the top four. They also have the third worst attack in the league, with only bottom-placed Burnley and Sheffield United scoring less than their 22 goals. Here is what we learned from the defeat at City Ground.
Man United Give Easy Goals To Forest
Man United managed to show same old weaknesses again, this time Nottingham Forest being the team to actually punish them. The two set-piece goals they conceded against Aston Villa, the Devils managed to get away with, after winning the match, but this time they were giving way too much space to their opponents for both goals. First, it was Nicolas Dominguez who scored after 64 minutes to make it 1-0, when he was inexplicably left alone in the middle of the penalty area, getting himself a chance he could not miss.
Then, there was the goal Morgan Gibbs-White scored after 82 minutes, to win the match. Things were quite similar, this time the goal coming after a transition in which United managed once more to be all over the place. Gibbs-White was alone following Anthony Elanga’s assist, with the attacking midfielder getting a chance you would usually see in training – an open foot was enough for his shot to find the net. That was ‘who-knows-which’ time that United conceded a goal inside the five minutes following their goal, as Rashford had equalised just four minutes before.
Rashford Finally Scores
At least a good thing for Man United in this match was the fact Marcus Rashford finally scored. After 34 days, he netted the goal with a nice strike to equalise 78th minute, scoring only his third goal of the campaign. Now all three came in away Premier League matches, with him not scoring at Old Trafford since May. Hopefully this will be an important moment in Rashford’s season, because he has been struggling for a while. Since the start of the campaign, he made 46 shots and only three were actually goals – and all of that after his best ever campaign last season. United will need a much better Rashford in 2024.
Garnacho Keeps On Giving
We could not say this was an amazing match for Alejandro Garnacho, but following his heroic display in the 3-2 comeback against Aston Villa four days prior, there were some important moments from the Argentine at the City Ground too. Garnacho was the one who made the most of that chance for the equaliser, setting up Rashford perfectly and getting himself an assist for it. Garnacho also created a really good chance for Christian Eriksen in the attack which came just before Forest’s winning goal, showing that Argentine trait of ‘la pausa’, when he waited for a moment or two, just before Eriksen came in to shoot. His dribbling was also something that moved United forwards, completing four of those, although he did lose the ball quite a few times throughout the match.
Bad Ending To A Rollercoaster Year
This was a real rollercoaster of the year. Man United finally won a trophy after six years, they were 90 minutes away from another one, and they finished third in the league to get back into Champions League. But since, they did their best to negate all the good things, losing nine of their 20 Premier League matches in the new season, finishing bottom of their Champions League group behind Copenhagen and Galatasaray, and also crashing out of League Cup early on in a 3-0 loss to Newcastle. Things will need to be much better in 2024 if Erik Ten Hag is to remain around.
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