Enzo Maresca admitted that Manchester City were unable to match the intensity levels of Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday evening.
Jair Cunha stunned the visitors by opening the scoring just five minutes after the game kicked off. Liam Delap doubled their lead in the 18th minute when he ran through the heart of City’s defence before rifling the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Rayan Cherki blasted home an absolute thunderbastard in the second half, but it turned out to only be a consolation as Delap smacked his second of the night in off the post to make it a 3-1 win for Forest.
Maresca lamented the fact City conceded two “copy and paste” goals to Delap in which they were bested both physical and in transition.
Maresca admits Man City ‘couldn’t match intensity’ of Nottingham Forest
“It is quite clear that the first half was not good enough,” the Italian said in his post-match press conference.
“We didn’t match the intensity that these kind of games required. We conceded one, we conceded two and then we tried to react. In the second half we started much, much better. We scored one, we didn’t score any more.
“Today we didn’t match the intensity, we need to understand the reasons why.
“The second and the third goal that we conceded in transition, they are copy and paste. The second one, we lost the duel in the middle of the pitch, and the third one, we lost the duel at the edge of the box. And from there, as I said, if you make a mistake or you don’t win duels, you can concede on transition.”
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