Martin Keown shares what he'd have said to Murillo after Nottingham Forest defeat vs Fulham

09/30/2024 03:00 AM

The debate will rumble on over the weekend’s Premier League football and the first defeat this season for Nottingham Forest.

Nuno Espirito Santo picked four central midfielders for the home clash and it’s the Forest head coach who has to carry the lionshare of the fault for this one.

With Callum Hudson-Odoi, Anthony Elanga, Jota Silva and Ramon Sosa all on the bench, Forest toiled and failed to really test Bernd Leno in 90 minutes.

Forest were left to rue some more staggering incompetencies from the match officials and that left Evangelos Marinakis angered as he watched on from the stands.

Raul Jimenez scored the only goal of the game, taking the penalty after Murillo was deemed to have fouled Andreas Pereira when it appeared an accidental collision.

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Martin Keown shares what he’d have said to Murillo after Forest defeat

The former Arsenal invincible knows a thing or two about defending – and it’s fair to say he’s probably given away a fair share of penalties.

Keown was working for the BBC on Saturday as one of the pundits on the Final Score – the broadcaster’s results show for the weekend’s games.

He was quizzed on the situation in the Forest game and he shared on air what he would have been telling Murillo after the incident involving the penalty.

He said on Final Score: “I think it’s very soft, but if I was working with Murillo, look there he steps on him initially and they’re saying that’s maybe what it is but we see a hand and he actually steps on him as well which I think is a bit unfortunate to be honest, that’s what I’d say. Jimenez makes a big meal of it and they get the penalty.”

Murillo will have to learn from this setback

In fairness, the Brazilian was largely solid throughout and on another day and with another referee in the VAR booth, he might not have given a penalty away.

Murillo is perhaps a bit naive to challenge for the header when in reality, Pereira can only flick it on to one particular place.

However, these are all part of the learning process for a 22-year-old centre-back playing regularly in the Premier League and he will take heart from his performance still.

Murillo was arguably Forest’s best player on the day and alongside Nikola Milenkovic, the Reds do look to have a settled rearguard now.

This was an unfortunate incident but all is not lost. Nine points from six games exceeded expectations so far and Espirito Santo now has an away game with Chelsea to look forward to next weekend.