Our reporter Michael Plant gives his verdict from the City Ground as Manchester United end 2023 in desperate fashion, losing 2-1 to Nottingham Forest.
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00:00 It's Michael Plant coming to you from the city ground after tonight.
00:03 Manchester United ended 2023 in pretty disastrous fashion, losing 2-1 away to Nullingham Forest.
00:09 You can probably still see some of the Forest players down beneath me celebrating.
00:14 It was a fantastic night for them, that's for sure, but for United, another abject display.
00:19 The sort of performance we're so used to seeing from United.
00:21 I asked before the game, could they kick on and play well for a second game in a row?
00:26 Something they haven't been able to manage at all this season.
00:29 But the answer was an unresounded no.
00:31 United were so disappointing going forward.
00:34 I mean, I tweeted after 10 minutes to say that Forest's goalkeeper had had more touches than United's front three.
00:41 Anthony was taken off in the second half, offering absolutely nothing.
00:45 Marcus Rashford played centrally with Rasmus Hoorn and Uytd.
00:49 He was so disappointing once again.
00:52 Yes, he did score a good goal and he took his finish well,
00:55 but in terms of build-up play, he offered absolutely nothing for United.
01:00 In terms of midfield, they were too easy to break through United once again.
01:04 I mean, both goals came from midfielders at the edge of the box,
01:07 just having all the time in the world to stroke their shots beyond Andre Onana.
01:13 And it's just another performance, once again, where United lack character,
01:16 they lack commitment and dedication.
01:20 And Sadiq Brailsford of Ineos was watching in the stands, and as I said,
01:23 a penny for his thoughts because he must be just scratching his head,
01:27 wondering how Ineos can go around improving this Manchester United side.
01:33 It was a game that started with not many chances, just one in the first 25 minutes.
01:37 In fact, sorry, just two in the first 25 minutes,
01:40 and it took until United really struggled to create any chances,
01:46 and it took until the latter stages of the first half,
01:48 when United didn't even manage any shot.
01:50 And it was Aaron Wan-Bissaka who had the only shot of the first half,
01:53 a full-back that was deflected and easily saved by the Forest goalkeeper.
01:56 I think that says it all, really, but it was around the hour mark
01:59 that Diogo Dalo hit the post, and within a couple of minutes,
02:02 Forest hit the post, obviously didn't go in,
02:05 and then a couple of minutes later, Forest took the lead,
02:07 with Dominguez sweeping the ball in after he was picked out by Montiel.
02:11 The Forest right back. United didn't respond, didn't offer very much after that,
02:16 but did manage to get back on level terms,
02:18 and a really poor mistake from Matt Turner,
02:20 passed the ball straight to Alejandro Garnaccio.
02:22 He laid it off to Rashford, and Rashford, to be fair, a nice finish, I thought,
02:25 curled it into the bottom corner.
02:27 You thought, can United go on, kick on from there, another comeback,
02:30 four days on from that Villa win, but no.
02:32 Within four minutes, it was 2-1. United had a great attack.
02:35 Christian Eriksen had a shot, it was saved by Turner, who, to be fair,
02:38 made some big saves at the end to redeem his error early on.
02:41 It was panned back, Forest counterattacked, United's midfield stopped,
02:45 and the ball eventually ended up at the feet of Morgan Gibbs-White,
02:48 at the edge of the United area, and he had all the time in the world
02:51 to just pass the ball, pass it on to Jadon Ana.
02:53 Far too easy once again, another spiritless, gutless,
02:57 lacklustre display from Manchester United to end what has been
03:00 a pretty horrendous and pretty disappointing calendar year for the club.
03:06 2024 has got to promise a lot more than that.
03:09 There's plenty of reasons for optimism, players coming back,
03:11 we know obviously what's happened with Ineos and the takeover,
03:14 but right now, this team are in desperate need of massive improvements.