Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes was “rattled” by Nottingham Forest star Ryan Yates during the Red Devils’ 3-2 defeat at Old Trafford on Saturday.
The Red Devils went behind inside two minutes as Nikola Milenkovic headed in a corner before Rasmus Hojlund equalised on 18 minutes for the hosts.
Morgan Gibbs-White and Chris Wood both scored as Forest stretched their lead over Man Utd to 3-1 early in the second half before Fernandes struck on 61 minutes to give the Red Devils a chance of a comeback.
The fight back did not come and Ruben Amorim’s side are now down to 13th in the Premier League table after their sixth defeat in 15 league matches this season.
Fernandes was visibly frustrated for much of the match and former Forest utility man James Perch reckons Yates managed to get under the Portugal international’s skin.
After a 24th-minute tussle with Yates, the Man Utd midfielder ran off to complain to the referee and Perch reckons the Red Devils “baby” was “rattled” by the Forest star.
Speaking on BBC Radio Nottingham during the match, Perch said: “What’s he moaning at? He’s such a baby, isn’t he? I really can’t stand him when he’s like that. Yates has rattled him.”
Andre Onana, who has been good for Man Utd this season, dropped a clanger for Forest’s second goal with a Gibbs-White shot beating the Cameroonian down the centre of his goal.
Asked to explain the visitors’ second goal, Amorim said: “We lost the ball in one position, a lot of open space, and then they scored. All the team suffered that goal. Onana already saved us a lot of times, so we have to find a way when this happens to Onana, or to Altay [Bayindir] or Tom [Heaton] to turn around and score two goals. The same way that he saved us, for example, against Ipswich.
“We have to continue as a team, we have to improve in all aspects of the game.”
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On Man Utd conceding another goal from a corner, Amorim added: “When this happens, it’s more my fault because I’m responsible. We try to do it in the best way. We did a lot of work in this area because we saw it against Arsenal.
“It was really hard in this context, suffering in the first play [of the game], to put energy into the team but we managed to do it. We were drawing the game, but then in the second half, the same thing.
“Then you feel it in everybody, the fans, the players…it’s really hard to transmit something, like continue to your job. We managed to score one more but then it was more like we wanted [to score again], but there was not a lot of quality.”
When asked why Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee didn’t start against Forest, the Man Utd head coach continued: “Every game is a new history, so you have to focus on the opponent and what you see in training and games. Every detail counts.
“You want to use different players with different characteristics. When we see an opponent, we imagine what kind of game. That is the reason. Rasmus [Hojlund] also scored two goals [against Bodo/Glimt] and then went to the bench [against Everton]. We try to find the best team to win matches.”
