Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United side slipped to a damaging defeat against Nottingham Forest (Picture: Getty)
Jamie Redknapp accused Erik ten Hag of making a major mistake by substituting Kobbie Mainoo at half time during Saturday’s defeat against Nottingham Forest.
After the morale boosting win over Aston Villa in midweek, it was a case of back to the drawing board for the beleagured Dutchman whose side slippped to another damaging loss.
Ten Hag’s pre-match plans were hindered by the illness that ruled Rasmus Hojlund out of the game and, as a result, United were utterly toothless during the opening period.
Forest, to be fair, were hardly a threat themselves, but that all changed following Mainoo’s withdrawal and the introduction of Scott McTominay.
The home side took the lead just past the hour mark when Argentine duo Gonzalo Montiel and Nicolás Dominguez combined to devastating effect.
United looked as though they had rescued an unlikely point when Alejandro Garnacho pounced on an error from Matt Turner to set-up Marcus Rashford, but the Red Devils’ joy was short-lived.
After Turner denied Christian Eriksen with a smart save, Forest tore up the other end and scored the decisive goal through Morgan Gibbs-White, with McTominay having allowed the matchwinner to run off him.
‘United were struggling defensively and he obviously made the change at half-time,’ Redknapp told Sky Sports.
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‘I found that was a very strange one to take off Mainoo and leave yourself without a recognised defensive midfield player and go with McTominay, Bruno Fernandes and Christian Eriksen.
‘That is an area where all good teams have defensive midfield players. You look at what McTominay has done this year for Scotland and Manchester United, all his good work has come at the top end of the field.
‘Straight away there were gaps and it opened up for Nottingham Forest and that’s where they got their success.’
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‘It was a very strange decision’