Forest 3, City 1: 78% of the Ball, 0 of 3 Big Chances, and the Same Story Every Week

I called it a trap game and I'd love to be wrong more often. Before this one, Forest hadn't scored a single home league goal all season: 0-1 to Leeds, 0-0 with Spurs, 0-1 to Coventry, 0-1 to Arsenal. They scored 3 on us. They had 22% of the ball, completed 137 passes to our 679, and still beat us 3-1, because every time they got near our box something went wrong and every time we got near theirs nothing did. It's the same game I keep writing about. Lots of possession, a manic defensive shape, and nothing creative in the final third. One game is a blip. This is starting to look like what Maresca's City actually is.

We were playing well and controlling the game for 5 minutes, and then there's the goal. Jair Cunha in the 6th minute, and Gvardiol was not good enough again. Just lackadaisical: no intent, no urgency, and no support from Guéhi beside him. Then in the 18th minute Delap made it 2-0 off a Schlager assist after absolutely abysmal defending from Guéhi and Dias. Gvardiol completed 6 of his 14 passes and FotMob gave him a 5.1, the lowest on the pitch. Maresca took him and Guéhi off at halftime, and he was right to. Dias stayed on for 90 and finished at 5.9. Those guys look in shambles right now, and the boys need to get together and have a conversation. For the record, my back line every game is Nico O'Reilly, Gvardiol, Khusanov and Nunes.

The giveaways are the part that kills me. In the 15th minute I wrote that we have to stop giving the ball away in dangerous counterattack positions. By the 19th we were losing it every single time we got into their final third. In the 22nd, Marc Guéhi, again: stop giving the ball away. The frustrating thing is he's not useless on the ball. His ball into Enzo in the 24th was excellent, and Enzo put it over the bar. His ball to Haaland in the 32nd was a half chance. FotMob has him creating 2 chances worth 0.34 xA in only 45 minutes. He has the range. He just has to stop handing Forest the counter.

With the ball, it was the same nothing. We had 771 passes, 33 touches in their box and 3 big chances, and we scored none of the three. Haaland had 18 touches in 90 minutes, the same number he had in Leipzig. He's feeding on scraps. There were moments. Cherki slipped Ndiaye through in the 8th minute and Ndiaye gave Doku a perfect delivery that got saved. Doku hit a great ball from deep in the 36th, the kind I don't mind as long as it's played well, because it keeps them honest. In the 41st Anderson found Khusanov, who laid it off to Haaland, and the corner gave Anderson a chance that Sels saved. Then there are the set pieces. Enzo's corners were horrific. Stop putting him on the left-sided corners.

The halftime subs were great. O'Reilly and Nunes came on, and Nunes immediately showed the quality going forward that Khusanov doesn't have from right back, which let Khusanov move in and show why he's the number 1 center back at the club right now next to Dias. That's where he belongs, and it's why Nunes has to be on the right. Then CHERKI in the 52nd minute. Doku made a bad attempt, it fell to Rayan, and he hit an absolute banger. We needed it. FotMob had him at 7.9, our best player. For 20 minutes after that, Haaland and Nunes kept getting involved, and from the 55th Ndiaye was playing amazing, putting in a great cross to Haaland and driving past 2 defenders in the 67th to win a free kick when he could have been away. People call him a vision merchant. I think he's been playing well and he's just getting his feet wet, so he keeps his spot when Semenyo comes back. We still really need Semenyo back, though. Ndiaye and Doku together are good, but Semenyo gives you the work rate and the physicality the Premier League demands. We needed the second goal to take the momentum. We didn't get it.

Then there's Doku, always looking to cut back inside. We had a good counter in the 46th and he just cut back to keep possession. Listen, he's the best one-on-one attacker in the Premier League, arguably in world football, and nobody stops him one-on-one. But the cut inside has to create something. Cut in and cross it. Cut in and play a one-two. Fake the cut and go down the line and pull it back. He does vary it, and after the Cherki goal he was playing unconscious for a stretch, but he finished 3 for 8 on dribbles and 0 for 3 on crosses. He needs to understand who's around him, and that comes from playing with Nico O'Reilly at left back more often. Those two connect. Him and Gvardiol just don't have the same chemistry.

Enzo had a terrible second half. He gave it away in a dangerous spot, and if you're playing the 6 you have to be aware, especially since he can "obviously play anywhere." He gave it away again from poor play in the 69th. He had 0.58 xG, the most on our team, and nothing to show for it. I was begging for Bouaddi so Anderson could push higher. Instead, in the 73rd minute, Forest got one chance, broke on us, and Liam Delap made it 3-1. We needed the second goal, we didn't get it, they got one chance and scored. It is so repetitive this season. Foden came on for Enzo in the 78th, and between the 85th and 87th we finally created a few chances. Too little, too late. Where was that hunger and free-flowing football all game?

Forest put 1.71 xG worth of shots on target. We put 0.80. That's the whole season in two numbers: we control the ball, they hit the target. Donnarumma, who I said should be benched after Leipzig, finished at -1.29 goals prevented, meaning an average keeper saves more than one of those 3 goals. Not all of that is on him this time, though. The defense is on the hook for this one, and as a collective they're playing absolutely horrific. Is that Maresca or the players? Both. Maresca is being hard-headed about not changing things. He's overthinking it and misprofiling players. And the players look frustrated with how the system is built. Put his refusal to change together with their frustration and you get what we saw here, a team that stops giving effort. Forest were winless in 4 coming into this one, and we made them look like a good team. After the international break, if the next 5 games leading into Boxing Day look like this, we really need to have a conversation.