Manchester City (A) 03/12/24

 

Manchester City 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Bernado Silva 8'

De Bruyne 31'

Doku 57'

 

City on a 7-game winless streak. Their next opponents? Nottingham Forest. I think we all knew the way this would end. It’s just the Forest way!

For their first trip to Manchester in the space of 4 days, the Reds were heading over to the blue side of the city. They were looking to extend City’s winless run and keep picking up points to help them remain in a European spot. The moral and confidence was there, coming off the back of a 1-0 home win versus Ipswich in the previous game week. As for the hosts, their last win came against Southampton back in late October. Liverpool seem to be running away with the title, after their 2-0 win versus City at Anfield last Sunday, but Pep’s side always find a way. Surely?

Even though Forest are flying this season, going to City was always going to be difficult. Reds’ fans knew they were in for a long game after the hosts took the lead just 6 minutes in. Josko Gvardiol, from the left-hand side, found Ilkay Gundogan in the box unmarked as Gibbs-White left it too late to track him. The boys in the red shirts could only watch as Gundogan crossed from the byline to Kevin De Bruyne at the back post, who headed towards goal. Bernado Silva poked the ball over on the goalline. Just moments before, City could’ve taken the lead from a Haaland first time strike, around 15 yards out but Sels got down well to parry it away.

The hosts really started to dominate and exploit the gaps in Forest’s midfield. The goal scorer and provider once again linked up down the right side this time before Bernado Silva lofted a ball into the box. Yet again another unmarked City player, this time Gvardiol, jumped up to head just wide of the left post. What a chance! Forest did create a chance of their own through Gibbs-White. Jota Silva did well to win the ball back from Gvardiol deep into City’s half before wriggling away from him and running towards the byline. He pulled back for the Reds’ number 10 whose edge of the box shot was well saved by Ortega.

After 2 close calls, Gvardiol and De Bruyne both dragging shots wide of eitther post, Forest tried to grow back into the game and came so close through top-scorer, Chris Wood. De Bruyne played a loose pass back to Gvardiol which Wood latched onto and broke away to end up 1 on 1 with Ortega. All those in the away end’s eyes lit up as Wood rarely misses these. However, he did this time as he opened his body up too much to fire wide. The striker would definitely be kicking himself as City went up the other end to double their lead. Jeremy Doku looked to cut into the middle of the pitch to get a shot off at goal. He was closely marked by Ryan Yates but the Forest midfielder went down holding his face. The referee was unmoved, waving away any protests so Doku’s job became even easier. Instead of shooting himself, Doku found De Bruyne on the edge of the box. He turned, took a shot and of course the net bulged. You can’t give him that much space.

With the difficult task of getting back into the game, Nuno changed formation to a back 3, bringing Morato on. With the Brazilian defender on the pitch, Forest were actually yet to concede. This record was shortly broken as the hosts went onto make it 3. From the middle of the park, Haaland dribbled forward before laying off to Doku. He was 1 on 1 with Milenkovic as he drove into the space in front of him but the wide angle seemed to be a challenge. However, the Belgian cut inside to fire into the bottom right corner and make City even more comfortable.

The game was really out of Forest’s reach now and they could only be resilient to not concede anymore. As the game drew to a close De Bryune, Grealish and Doku had chances to extend the Blues’ lead but were either denied by Sels or poor finishing. As for the Reds, Elanga had a chance to decrease the deficit, but his curling shot flashed just over.

Wednesday was a poor performance and the boys looked tired and some of them, unbothered. With City on a poor run, the opportunity was there but we have to remember who we’re playing against so we shouldn’t be too downhearted. However, I do think we showed them too much respect at times. We either should’ve started with a back 3 or a midfield 3 because City were dragging Yates and Dominguez around to leave a big gap and then exploiting that space. The goals we conceded were disappointing as I think all 3 were preventable but the game could’ve been so different if Wood had netted the 1 on 1. Throughout the season, we’ve really struggled with our play in the final third, whether that be decision-making or making a poor pass or shot. If we get that right, we will destroy more teams.

 

Manchester City: Ortega; Gvardiol, Ake (McAtee 90'), Dias, Akanji (Walker 46'); Gundogan; Doku (Savinho 90'), Grealish (Nunes 90'), De Bruyne (Lewis 74'), Bernado Silva; Haaland 

 

Forest: Sels; Moreno, Murillo, Milenkovic, Aina (De Silva Moreira 63'); Yates (Morato 46'), Dominguez; Jota Silva (Sosa 72'), Gibbs-White (Anderson 63'), Elanga; Wood (Awoniyi 62')