Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Jermaine Jenas has said that his former club will be relegated from the Premier League this season, should they not improve their defensive performances at the City Ground.
After keeping a clean sheet in their 1-0 win over Liverpool in their last game at the City Ground, Forest conceded twice against Brentford. A last gasp own goal from Mathias Jorgensen rescued a point for the Reds in a 2-2 draw.
A penalty from Bryan Mbeumo and a strike from Yoane Wissa put Forest at joint top of the most home goals conceded this season with 11. Steve Cooper ’s men have also faced a league -igh 86 shots on target.
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Analysing the game on Match of the Day, Jenas went through both of the goals conceded against Brentford to point out where the Forest defence went wrong. “You look at some stats at times at home, they’re just conceding too many goals,” he said on Saturday night’s show.
“Here Cook has got to provide a better option for Freuler who’s on the ball. When you’re a midfield player you can’t just be playing square balls like that.
"And then to compound the mistakes, Cook is trying to play offside when he is the deepest lying defender. He’s got to track the run of Wissa here.”
While the first goal came from a controversial penalty that was also discussed by the Match of the Day pundits, the second was from a long ball over the top. Jenas pointed out two areas where Forest should have done better, with a clear warning to the squad.
“Then obviously, the second goal,” he added. “The backline of Forest need to be more active. As you can see here, Jensen has time on the ball, they’ve got to be dropping immediately.
“Henderson needs to be in a better position as well, he’s way too far in his own box, he needs to go on the edge of the D. So he’s in no-mans’ land and he (Wissa) sticks it in the back of the net.
“There’s no doubt there’s a lot there to fix, they got themselves back into it with a draw and stuff. But they can’t be winning games of football, when home goals conceded and shots faced on target, and you’re top of the tree for both of them.
“It’s not good enough. And at this rate they will go down, that’s got to change.”
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