Nuno Espirito Santo has told his Nottingham Forest players that Champions League qualification is still in their own hands, but warned: “We have to do it by ourselves.”
Forest were dealt a blow to their hopes as Abdoulaye Doucoure scored a 94th minute winner for Everton, following a rare mistake from Brazilian defender Murillo at the City Ground, as Nuno’s side slipped to a 1-0 defeat.
Nuno said there were “no positives” to take from the game, which saw Forest fail to offer much attacking threat of their own, against an organised Everton side.
But Forest do still sit third in the table, with six games left to play and their head coach says improvement is required, before they head to face Tottenham Hotspur on Monday April 21.
“It is in our hands but nobody will give us anything, we have to do it by ourselves. It is up to us to improve and compete much better — like we did before,” said Nuno in his post match press conference.
“We cannot get away from the fact it is a decisive moment of the season. We were not comfortable and the fans also saw the boys were struggling. We are in this position and we want to try to give it a go. But nobody is going to give us anything.
“We are disappointed. Disappointed with the performance. We were not comfortable and didn’t play good. The game didn’t flow. Everton caused us a lot of problems. They won the duels and the second balls. They were putting us under pressure. In terms of our offensive play, we didn’t create much.”
Nuno says Murillo will not be singled out for blame, for what was an uncharacteristic mistake from the 22-year-old, who allowed Dwight McNeil to snatch the ball off his toes and launch the attack from which Everton scored.
“It was not normal. The decision making was not the best,” said Nuno. “It is not about players, it is about us as a team. When someone makes a mistake, we always have someone to try to correct it and help. It didn’t work out today.
“We are disappointed because with an offensive corner in the last minutes of the game, we want to try to score. It is not even a counterattack.
“Credit to Everton, they were physical and didn’t allow us too much time on the ball. But we should do much better. We are disappointed in the end with the way we conceded. If you cannot win because we didn’t play good, at least keep what you have.”
(David Rogers/Getty Images)