Alan Shearer identifies two Nottingham Forest players who were ‘turned inside out’ at Bournemouth

Although Nottingham Forest’s defensive duo of Nikola Milenkovic and Murillo have rightfully received a lot of accolades this season, Alan Shearer has reasoned that the Reds were soundly defeated on Saturday because the duo was unable to handle Bournemouth’s livewire forwards.

The crushing loss at the Vitality Stadium this weekend will undoubtedly go down as one of the low points in a campaign full of high points under Nuno Espirito Santo so far, and Forest is now guaranteed Champions League spots as a result. Going forward, Forest will have to attribute it to a bad day at work.

The Cherries scored goals through Antoine Semenyo and Justin Kluivert, and Dango Outtara scored a hat-trick in between as Andoni Iraola’s team easily defeated another Premier League rival. They have scored 16 goals in their last four games across all competitions, and it was obvious that Forest was the target.

Milenkovic and Murillo have struck up a formidable partnership at the heart of the Forest defence this season and have prided themselves on clean sheets, but Bournemouth’s front-line – which is devoid of their injured centre forwards Evanilson and Enes Unal – proved to be too powerful.

“The pace about their passing and their play…it was just too much for Nottingham Forest to handle,” Shearer said. “Two players who we’ve praised all season, in Milenkovic and Murillo, and rightly so, but they were turned inside out. We’ve said so much about the goalkeeper, and the great season he has been having, but not today.”

Results for Forest didn’t go anywhere else that afternoon; Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Newcastle all triumphed, drawing the top four teams in the Premier League table even closer. Although he doesn’t think Forest can finish in the top four after 38 games, commentator Danny Murphy would really want to see them—or Bournemouth—achieve it.

“I hope one of them does, because I think it’ll be brilliant for the Premier League,” Murphy stated. “I have a hunch that Chelsea, Manchester City, Newcastle, and Villa will be stronger in depth and have a bit more experience and expertise. that’s still implausible, but what a story that would be.