Nikola Milenkovic will take the blame, but his Nottingham Forest teammate was at fault in shocking Brentford loss

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Nottingham Forest lost 2-0 to Brentford on Thursday night, with Nikola Milenkovic at the centre of criticism for Yoane Wissa’s goal in particular.

Back-to-back Premier League defeats at the City Ground have left Forest’s Champions League push in serious jeopardy, as goals from Wissa and Kevin Schade compounded a miserable evening.

It was suggested that Keane Lewis-Potter should’ve been sent off, but that wouldn’t have changed the fact that a number of disappointing individual errors cost Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.

Milenkovic has had an incredible debut season but Wissa’s goal didn’t show him in a good light at all, but looking back at the replays highlighted that one of his teammates played a damning role in the goal as well.

Murillo was at fault for Yoane Wissa’s goal

Forest fans were fuming with Murillo for his performance overall, which is particularly worrying given that even in the last home game against Everton, Espirito Santo wasn’t happy with Murillo.

His poor showing was particularly highlighted by the goal that Milenkovic took most of the blame for, as his positioning put his centre-back partner in a terrible spot.

Coming from a goal kick, Murillo immediately pulls out of the defensive line to go touch-tight on Bryan Mbeumo, vacating the space that Wissa would then exploit.

Of course, if the Brazilian is able to head the ball away, it makes his decision to push make sense, but his failure to do so left Milenkovic in a position where he had to race across to the left to cover for Murillo.

Poor decision making was clearly at fault then, which is particularly disappointing given that statistically, Murillo had a solid game up against Mbeumo and Wissa.

Murillo had a statistically solid night otherwise against Brentford

Murillo is desperate to qualify for the Champions League, but this display won’t exactly have helped his ambition, although he himself performed reasonably despite his mistake.

The Brazilian won all of his tackles and aerial duels in the game, as well as making five clearances. Murillo was as strong as ever on the ball, too, completing 83% of his passes, including nine into the final third.

It remains to be seen if he’ll still be at the club as Liverpool have shown interest in Murillo, but results like Thursday night throw into question the chances of Champions League football returning to the City Ground.

Without continental competition, Forest might struggle to keep hold of the 22-year-old, so the final four games of the Premier League season have plenty riding on them.