EPL: Taiwo Awoniyi’s boss gives mixed verdict after Forest’s loss to Man City

Despite being a man down, Manchester City defeated Nottingham Forest at home, much to the disgust of their manager, Steve Cooper.

Nottingham Forest’s manager, Steve Cooper was left disappointed after his side couldn’t use their numerical advantage to come away with a point against Manchester City, Soccernet.ng reports.

It was a shambolic first-half show from Forest, meanwhile, for Pep Guardiola’s men, it was a walk in the park. A forty-six-pass succession saw Phil Foden at the end of it to open the scoring just after seven minutes.

Cooper’s men were left pegged in their own half and couldn’t help themselves against a spirited City side. Beautiful link-up play between Kyle Walker and Bernardo Silva sent Matheus Nunes to the byline before the Portuguese crossed the ball for Erling Haaland to head home City’s second of the afternoon.

The start of the second half saw Rodri get a red card after getting into an altercation with Morgan Gibbs-White, and both sides picked up more yellow cards as the game went on, each fighting for their clubs.

The Reds made attacking changes with Antony Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi coming off the bench in an attempt to take charge of their numerical advantage, but could only muster a few shots on target as City hung on to their win and a clean sheet.

Speaking after the game, Steve Cooper bemoaned his side’s poor start. In quotes revealed by Nottinghampost, the Welshman said;  “Without stating the obvious, it was a really poor start, in terms of the goals we conceded, we know the level of the challenge, preparing for and playing a game against City here at the Etihad. It doesn’t get any tougher.”

The forty-three-year-old tactician recognized the quality and threat Pep’s side have in their arsenal but was disappointed in the passive manner with which his side allowed the ball into the back of the net. He added;

“If you look at the City goals, they were great quality but they are very much typical Man City goals in terms of the type, but to let it happen as easily as we did was disappointing. If they were going to do it and score, I wanted it to be with real difficulty.”

Manchester City have eighteen points from six games, while Nottingham Forest have just seven points from the same, and could be in dangerous waters, should they not pick up positive results soon.