Nikola Milenkovic will take the blame, but his Nottingham Forest teammate was at fault in shocking Brentford loss

Nottingham Forest lost 2-0 to Brentford on Thursday night, with Nikola Milenkovic at the centre of criticism for Yoane Wissa’s goal in particular.

Back-to-back Premier League defeats at the City Ground have left Forest’s Champions League push in serious jeopardy, as goals from Wissa and Kevin Schade compounded a miserable evening.

It was suggested that Keane Lewis-Potter should’ve been sent off, but that wouldn’t have changed the fact that a number of disappointing individual errors cost Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.

Milenkovic has had an incredible debut season but Wissa’s goal didn’t show him in a good light at all, but looking back at the replays highlighted that one of his teammates played a damning role in the goal as well.

Murillo was at fault for Yoane Wissa’s goal

Forest fans were fuming with Murillo for his performance overall, which is particularly worrying given that even in the last home game against Everton, Espirito Santo wasn’t happy with Murillo.

His poor showing was particularly highlighted by the goal that Milenkovic took most of the blame for, as his positioning put his centre-back partner in a terrible spot.

Coming from a goal kick, Murillo immediately pulls out of the defensive line to go touch-tight on Bryan Mbeumo, vacating the space that Wissa would then exploit.

Of course, if the Brazilian is able to head the ball away, it makes his decision to push make sense, but his failure to do so left Milenkovic in a position where he had to race across to the left to cover for Murillo.

Poor decision making was clearly at fault then, which is particularly disappointing given that statistically, Murillo had a solid game up against Mbeumo and Wissa.

Murillo had a statistically solid night otherwise against Brentford

Murillo is desperate to qualify for the Champions League, but this display won’t exactly have helped his ambition, although he himself performed reasonably despite his mistake.

The Brazilian won all of his tackles and aerial duels in the game, as well as making five clearances. Murillo was as strong as ever on the ball, too, completing 83% of his passes, including nine into the final third.

It remains to be seen if he’ll still be at the club as Liverpool have shown interest in Murillo, but results like Thursday night throw into question the chances of Champions League football returning to the City Ground.

Without continental competition, Forest might struggle to keep hold of the 22-year-old, so the final four games of the Premier League season have plenty riding on them.

More bad news for Nottingham Forest as Nuno Espirito Santo confirms fresh injury after Brentford defeat

Nottingham Forest remain in sixth place after suffering a third defeat in four against Brentford on Thursday evening.

Murillo endured a game to forget as he looked all over the place at times, making an error in the build-up to Yoane Wissa’s goal.

Nottingham Forest fans slammed Murillo for ball watching far too often and Nikola Milenkovic received criticism, too.

Speaking post-match, Nuno Espirito Santo was surprised by how poorly his defenders coped with the balls over the top.

“Not a good performance,” the Forest boss told BBC MOTD. “Something that we have to analyse.

“Normally solid over the top of our defence, but credit to Brentford. They defended well and didn’t give us much – disappointing night.”

Nuno also admitted he has a fresh injury concern.

• READ MORE: Jamie Redknapp says Darren England made a major error during Nottingham Forest vs Brentford

Callum Hudson-Odoi picks up injury vs Brentford

Thursday’s defeat was a real sore one for Forest, as they’re now outside of the top five with the same games played.

Nuno explained that he’s not worried about the table, though, he just wants to analyse where his side must improve.

“It’s a bad night and a bad game. I’m not really worried about the table, more how to correct the mistakes.

“Credit to Brentford but the situations we should solve normally with better defending. We are disappointed but it’s about reacting and going for the next one.

“I don’t say it was because of the semi-final. It was high demanding on a fitness aspect but we should have defended better.

“We didn’t create too much, Brentford defended well. We have to compete much better to achieve what we want. The way we did it in this game is not normal for where we are.”

The Forest boss then confirmed that Callum Hudson-Odoi, who came off at half-time, picked up an injury.

“He was not able to continue. He felt something in the first half.”

Attention now turns to Crystal Palace

Forest must quickly put this defeat behind them, as they’re back in action on Monday evening.

The East Midlanders travel down to the capital to take on Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, which won’t be an easy game by any means.

Palace are coming off the back of a convincing 3-0 win against Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-final, so they’ll be full of confidence.

But, having said that, Forest got the better of Oliver Glasner’s men in the reverse fixture, with Chris Wood netting the winner.