Manager Mark Warburton has reflected on Nottingham Forest’s heavy loss to Chelsea yesterday evening and he knows the side must learn from the experience.
Heading to Stamford Bridge for the EFL Cup third round tie against Antonio Conte’s side, Forest travelled home with a five one defeat – Tendayi Darikwa found the net in the 91st minute.
Speaking to the Official Forest Site as he met with the media following the game to give his post match press conference, Warburton knew we had started the game well, but again our habit of giving away soft goals on our travels came up to bite us and it’s something that clearly needs improvement as it’s happening too often.
‘We started the game strongly, we came out and moved the ball quickly but again we gave away two goals. Just like against Sheffield Wednesday and Wolves, we gave away two sloppy goals and suddenly it was an uphill battle against a world-class team. It is alright saying we played in certain stages but it is irrelevant if we continue to concede soft goals. We’ve got to become hard to beat and have a real passion to defend our goal. At the moment we’ve got a soft underbelly and we’re too easy to score against.’
Warburton went on to add.
‘We gave the ball away 20 yards from our goal on a number of occasions and if we do that against world-class players then we will get hurt. As soon as we went 2-0 down some of the shoulders slumped and it became much more difficult.’
With Aston Villa up next on Saturday, the gaffer called on the players to produce a response and show a reaction and some character to put this result behind us, as he continues to believe in them.
‘As a group of players and staff, it is about what can we do now. It is all well and good being complimentary about our style of play but if we’re too easy to beat then it means nothing. We’ve used the squad tonight by making eight changes but there is enough quality in that dressing room to be a good team. Goals change games and at the moment we’re conceding too many soft ones.’
