Getting the right balance between attack and defence is a must for Nottingham Forest in their remaining games.
Centre-back Joe Worrall takes encouragement from Saturday’s first half at Villa Park, when Aston Villa were generally kept at arm’s length. Up until the error from Jonjo Shelvey which led to the hosts’ opener after the break, the Reds’ game-plan had been working.
They had also looked threatening on the counterattack but couldn’t make it count and ended the match having registered just two shots on target. The 2-0 defeat made it nine without a win for Forest and saw them drop into the relegation zone.
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With eight fixtures remaining, head coach Steve Cooper urgently needs to oversee an improvement in form - starting against Manchester United on Sunday. Worrall says the Reds have shown what they are capable of this season, but knows there is much riding on delivering results to back that up.
“We’ve been a little bit unfortunate, with how well we have played in spells in games,” said the defender. “We maybe need to look at being a bit more of an attacking threat, but in terms of solidity and the way we have been in spells…
“Look at the first half against Villa, we were very, very impressive. We limited them to five or six touches in our box.
“We were maybe not as attacking as we have shown at home in some games, but we limited them to half a chance in the first half. We understand what happened with the goal, and then we changed formation. But if it had stayed 0-0, the longer the game went on, it would have been in our favour.
“The second goal came from committing men forward and being down to 10 men. We were throwing caution to the wind.
“You look at the Wolves game, we possibly could have won it. We were below par against Leeds, we understand that. Against Villa, I’m not saying we deserved three points, but we probably deserved a little bit more out of the game, as the first half showed.”
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