Nuno Espirito Santo is concerned that Nuno Tavares could be out for several weeks due to injury and believes Moussa Niakate is a capable replacement for the left-back role at Aston Villa. I was feeling it.
Nottingham Forest lost 4-2 in the West Midlands, but the home side opened up a 3-0 lead, with the first two goals coming from attacks down Villa's right flank. The third goal was a corner kick from the same side of the pitch.
After Ollie Watkins put Villa ahead in the fourth minute, it would be unfair to blame Niahate for scoring Forest's opening goal in first-half stoppage time amid a weak team performance defensively, with Douglas Luiz scoring twice. That would be fair.
However, Forest also looked much stronger after moving into a central defensive role, with Harry Toffolo coming off the bench as one of three half-time substitutes.
“I think Niahate can do the job there. (Leon) Bailey is a strong opponent who gets a lot of 1V. We decided to use Niahate at first. We knew we had Harry,” Nuno said. said.
Niakhate often plays as a central defender, but has also played at left-back during his career, including on an international stage with the Senegalese national team.
The 27-year-old was called up due to an injury to Portuguese defender Tavares, who is on loan from Arsenal.
“Tavares was injured against West Ham. He's going to be out for a while. It's going to be a number of weeks,” said Nuno, who brought on Toffolo, Andrew Omobamidele and Divock Origi as substitutes and added Felipe. , Murillo and Taiwo Awoniyi were sent off.
Morgan Gibbs-White quickly made it 3-2, but Anthony Elanga missed a chance to equalize, but Bailey's goal put Villa ahead 4-2.
“We had a bad start. It was a really, really bad start. We just had a bad start to the game. It was too easy for them to score. We didn't play well. even if it gives us hope,” Nuno said.
“We started the second half really well. We had some good chances at 3-2. The game was there for us. But in conclusion, it was a bad performance.”
