Championship 2018/19: Nottingham Forest vs Leeds United

After a 2-0 defeat at home to Hull City stopped their seven-game win streak from becoming eight, Leeds United were looking for a swift return to winning ways as they travelled to the City Ground, home of fellow promotion hopefuls Nottingham Forest. Top of the league at the turn of the year is a good omen for Leeds. Each of the last 13 clubs to share that same position have gone on to achieve automatic promotion.

Nottingham Forest are only a couple of wins away from a promotion playoff spot but hadn’t won any of their last five games in the Championship. Beating league leaders Leeds United would be a huge morale boost for the club and an indication of their promotion credentials for this season.

Given the lack of football matches on at the same time, this 1 January fixture had the eyes of the footballing world on it, eager to see an entertaining festive clash between two historic English clubs. They weren’t left disappointed.

Early exchanges

Forest began the game with an aggressive approach. Aitor Karanka’s side were quite vertical in their passing. They looked to quickly move the ball through Leeds’ defensive lines with forward passes. When Leeds were too compact to play through, Forest often played long and direct to Daryl Murphy who has the physical stature of a true target man. Murphy had the trio of Cash, Carvalho and Lolley in close support behind him.

Without the ball, Forest looked to shut down Leeds attempts to play out from the back by cutting off supply to holding midfielder Adam Forshaw. With short passing lanes cut off and very little time for their defenders on the ball, Leeds found Forest’s high press very difficult to play through. Karanka’s aggressive game plan had Leeds on the back foot in the early minutes.