Nuno makes 7-0 point and issues Nottingham Forest warning after 'bad' day at Bournemouth
Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo has made clear a 5-0 thumping away to Bournemouth must serve as a “warning” for his Nottingham Forest team.
A second-half capitulation saw the Reds’ nine-match unbeaten run come to an end amid a poor performance on the south coast. They remain third in the Premier League table, but Nuno has stressed lessons must be taken on board from the past two games.
Forest had a scare against Southampton last weekend when they were left hanging on after being 3-0 up at the break. They survived a fightback from the Saints to claim all three points but have now gone 135 minutes without scoring a goal while conceding seven at the other end.
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“Of course it is tough to take. I think it surprised everybody, especially the way we started the game. It was bad. It was bad. From the beginning until the end, it was a bad day,” Nuno said after the full-time whistle at the Vitality Stadium.
“It is realising how we do things; how we’ve been playing football until today. It is clear our strengths - we are a team that needs to be close to each other, compact and don’t allow space for our opponents to drive and make their actions.
“The moment that we lose that aspect of the game, it becomes much harder for us. Much, much harder.
“Not only today. The second half against Southampton was a warning. It is a 7-0 that we have in 135 minutes, that’s the reality. We have to take a deep look at how we did it today so we cannot repeat it again.
“It must be a warning for everybody - us as a group of coaching staff, the players, the fans. Realising how we do things, and we can never abandon those aspects of the game.”
Forest had gone in at the break one goal down to the Cherries after Justin Kluivert’s early strike. Nikola Milenkovic had an opportunity to make it 1-1 after the interval but saw his header saved. A Dango Ouattara hat-trick and one from Antoine Semenyo then made it an afternoon to forget for the Reds.
