Nottingham Forest climbed back out of the Premier League relegation zone with a 0-0 draw at home to Fulham
Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White was taken off during the draw with Fulham(Image: Getty)
Head coach Vitor Pereira has explained why he decided to substitute skipper Morgan Gibbs-White in Nottingham Forest’s 0-0 draw with Fulham.
The Reds climbed back out of the bottom three with Sunday afternoon’s point at the City Ground but they were frustrated not to take more against the Cottagers. It was a familiar tale of a lack of goal threat for Pereira’s men.
Gibbs-White has been able to provide that in previous games and is the club’s top scorer in the league this term with eight goals. The decision to take off Forest’s No.10 and bring on battling midfielder Ryan Yates with 15 minutes to go raised a few eyebrows.
Pereira had already substituted Nicolas Dominguez and Callum Hudson-Odoi at half-time, with wide men Omari Hutchinson and Dan Ndoye on for the duo. Taiwo Awoniyi later replaced Igor Jesus, while James McAtee came on for Elliot Anderson in the dying minutes in a bid to force a breakthrough.
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“Morgan is a fantastic player,” Pereira said. “But in the moment of the subs, usually I give some minutes to understand if the player has the energy to help the team and be himself.
“He ran a lot in the last game (against Midtjylland). For me, Morgan is not a winger. He is a player to play in between the lines and to play in the back of the striker.
“At half-time, I realised I didn’t want him to play as a winger because I prefer to bring him into the areas where he can decide the game. He tries.
“I put a true winger on to create situations one-vs-one. Omari (Hutchinson) did very well.
“I tried with the substitution of Igor to put more energy on the pitch, with Taiwo. Taiwo created a lot of problems.
“I tried with Dan to have another fresh winger. He likes to attack the space. For me, that was important in that moment. We tried everything the game was demanding, even the substitution of Morgan.
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“McAtee is a player that, if he plays with confidence and what he does in training, he can do magical things. From nothing, he can create something special. In the last minute, I thought we would try with this kind of player because sometimes you can get a penalty or sometimes a situation one-vs-one. He has the quality to do it.
“It is not easy in five minutes, of course. He tried. I asked him to go and play with confidence. I wanted to see the same player I watch in training. We tried everything.”
Awoniyi impressed during his cameo appearance and could have won the game late on. The Nigerian was preferred to Napoli loanee Lorenzo Lucca on the bench.
“I decided for Taiwo,” Pereira explained. “My decisions are about how you need to deserve what you get in life.
“It is not about the quality, because he (Lucca) has quality. But in this moment, in my opinion, Taiwo deserved to play and it was my decision.
“This is about merit and about work, about the spirit. In 20 minutes he (Awoniyi) created a lot and had two chances to score. The last one was in the last second. He is a fighter and I like this type of player, I like this mentality and spirit.”
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