Ryan Yates proved the only bright spark for Nottingham Forest as Manchester United defeated them 3-0 at Old Trafford.
Steve Cooper’s team were once again lacking any kind of self-belief at the Theatre of Dreams. It’s all growing tiresome now.
Forest were handed a blow ahead of kick-off. Morgan Gibbs-White has been ruled out for a while and that is a huge setback for the Reds.
Still, the eleven that Cooper did select was probably the strongest they could have fielded on the night.
There were several really poor performances for the Reds. Wayne Hennessey didn’t call himself in glory, Joe Worrall was pretty ordinary and Emmanuel Dennis was dreadful from the bench.
There was a bright spark for the Reds, however…
Ryan Yates outstanding for Forest against Manchester United
The 25-year-old continues to see his stock rise in a Forest shirt and he was excellent against Manchester United.
He covered every blade of grass at Old Trafford and at times, Christian Eriksen struggled to get to grips with his movement.
The Danish performer was cautioned in the second half for a cynical foul and that was down to Yates.
Who Scored highlighted some of the attributes that Yates brought to the table against United.
He made three clearances and also made two tackles during his 90 minutes on the pitch.
Yates also had a pass success ratio of 63.6%. On a normal day that perhaps sounds poor but last night it was the second-best of any Forest player.
The academy starlet is continuing to prove his doubters wrong.
He doesn’t always get things quite right and naturally, he can still improve. Here, however, it was hard to argue that he played well.
Yates is slowly but surely starting to look like a player that can make an impact in the Premier League.
He was superb against Manchester United and let’s hope that he can kick on even further as the season progresses.
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