Steve Cooper says performance of one star showed how well Manchester United played in win

Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper says the busy shift of Keylor Navas exposed how effective Manchester United were in attack during Sunday’s 2-0 win at the City Ground.

Antony’s first league strike since October and Diogo Dalot’s first Premier League goal saw United jump to third in the table after Newcastle’s loss to Aston Villa on Saturday. Tottenham’s defeat to Bournemouth means the Reds are six points clear of fifth having played a game fewer.

Erik ten Hag was without Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez due to injuries, the latter of whom is out for the rest of the campaign. Back-ups Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof managed to keep a clean sheet having largely kept Forest at bay barring a few half-openings.

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Although Ten Hag called for his team to be more ruthless in attack post-match, Cooper said the visiting frontline’s eye for goal meant Keylor Navas was kept a busy man, having made five saves during the game.

“In the second half, there were a couple of flashes across goal, a couple of crossing areas and a couple of breakaways, but we’ve not been able to create that real good chance, apart from T’s [Taiwo Awoniyi] where we put them under pressure and he should hit the target,” Cooper admitted, after his side failed to register a shot on target.

“They (United) do, they would have - and that’s why Keylor has played as well as he has today. There’s no doubt that at this level everything has to be top.

“When they’ve got the ball and you don’t get it right, you get punished. You’ve got to do the same to the opponent when you’ve got it . We didn’t do that well enough.”

Cooper went on to praise United’s structure throughout the match although thought his side