Nottingham Forest’s 3-0 defeat against Arsenal wasn’t the ideal start to the Ange Postecoglou era, with one performance in particular leading to criticism from Ben Foster.
Forest’s defeat away against Arsenal won’t define Postecoglou’s tenure in charge by any means, but the Australian must’ve been hoping to see something more promising from his new squad.
Ahead of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash, Postecoglou has hinted at changes against Swansea to truly start implementing his vision for the Reds, in what could be seen as the perfect opportunity to start bedding in some of the new signings.
However, it was one of the old guard that caught Foster’s eye on the weekend against Arsenal, for all the wrong reasons.
Morato facing up against Noni Madueke
Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Ben Foster slams Morato’s performance against Arsenal
Due to Ola Aina’s hamstring injury and Oleksandr Zinchenko being ineligible to play against his parent side, Brazilian central defender Morato was drafted in by Postecoglou to play left-back, where he looked immediately uncomfortable.
Arsenal and England winger Noni Madueke took advantage of his lack of pace time and again before Morato was moved back into centre-back, launching Foster into a critique of his efforts.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Foster said: “They played a guy at left-back, Morato. It was on Madueke’s side. Honestly, right, if you want to go and watch the first half, it’s like something in an X-rated video that you’d see on some sort of sites. He had him on a piece of toast every single time.
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“All he kept doing was standing Morato up, and Morato was going, “Oh no. Oh no.” And he was gone before he knew it.”
It was a nightmare afternoon for Morato before he was moved into centre-back just before half-time, but Postecoglou may have seen enough.
Morato may struggle to earn Ange Postecoglou’s trust back
Of course, it wasn’t his natural position and he was up against one of the stronger one-on-one dribblers in the league, but Morato didn’t excel in other areas of the game either.
Statistic Morato vs Arsenal
Possession lost 11
Ground duels won 1/3
Accurate long balls 3/8
Perhaps most importantly for Postecoglou, Morato was unreliable in possession, losing the ball 11 times, which is simply unsustainable in a side looking to hurt their opponents on the ball.
He struggled when attempting to go long as well, while his defensive work left a lot to be desired, with only 1 ground duel won out of the three attempted.
It’s the struggles in possession that may leave Morato struggling to make an impact under Postecoglou, though, either at centre-back or left-back.