Kobbie Mainoo was taken off at half-time in Manchester United’s loss at Nottingham Forest (Picture: Getty Images)

Erik ten Hag has come in for criticism for substituting Kobbie Mainoo at half-time in Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest, but he says he has no regrets over the tactical decision.

The match was goalless at the break after a tedious first half and Ten Hag chose to replace Mainoo with Scott McTominay.

Nicolas Dominguez opened the scoring for Forest, with Marcus Rashford equalising and then Morgan Gibbs-White scoring the winner for the home side shortly after.

Red Devils legend Peter Schmeichel has hit out at Ten Hag for taking off Mainoo when other players were ‘doing absolutely nothing’ while both Forest goals came from shots you would hope a defensive midfielder might stop at the source, but the Dutch manager does not agree.
Asked if he was forced into the change through injury, Ten Hag said: ‘No, but he played a third game in a row in this week and that’s tough, where he’s coming from.

‘I thought the energy was a little bit lower than the other two games this week, therefore we brought some new energy in. I don’t regret.

‘I thought Scott brought energy, I thought second half was much better our side. The first goal, when you analyse it good, we were downsized. Nothing to do with the central midfield there.

‘Second goal was a counter-attack where there was a miscommunicati...