1 week ago
27
Nottingham Forest’s victory here last season was a blip in an otherwise commanding Premier League home campaign for Liverpool. Their repeat this season, a far more convincing triumph under Sean Dyche, was symptomatic of the problems engulfing the faltering champions. Arne Slot cannot pin set-piece failings on this one.
Forest were exemplary as they recorded their biggest victory at Anfield. Goals from Murillo, outstanding at both ends of the pitch, Nicolò Savona and the superb Morgan Gibbs-White inspired a deserved victory for a Forest side that also kept a first clean sheet in 20 Premier League matches.
Liverpool, by contrast, were a mess as they suffered an eighth defeat in 11 matches to drop into the bottom half of the table. Poor at set pieces, again, ineffectual in attack, again, with Alexander Isak withdrawn after 68 anonymous minutes, and defensively weak, they struggled in all departments to succumb to a second successive 3-0 defeat.
For 30 minutes Liverpool held the upper hand, the occasional break from Gibbs-White aside, but the failure to turn promise into the hard currency of goals cost them dearly. Alexis Mac Allister was presented with an early chance from Cody Gakpo’s surge into the area only for Elliot Anderson to produce a superb goalline clearance with his head. The Liverpool midfielder had a second shot blocked moments later while dazzling footwork from Mohamed Salah created another close-range opportunity for Milos Kerkez. A Forest defender just did enough to disturb the full-back into firing over.
Slot has frequently bemoaned Liverpool’s vulnerability to counterattacks and set pieces this season. He was given fresh cause for complaint when Forest took the lead through a combination of the two.
Dyche was aghast after Igor Jesus failed to release Nicolás Domínguez in space on the break and gave Ibrahima Konaté opportunity to intervene. The resulting corner sparked jubilant scenes in the Forest dugout, however, when Anderson’s delivery glanced off Virgil van Dijk to Murillo and the centre-half drilled an unstoppable finish from six yards into the far corner. There were echoes of Van Dijk’s disallowed goal against Manchester City in the visitors’ opener with Dan Ndoye standing in an offside position in front of Liverpool’s fit-again keeper Alisson.
Unsurprisingly, the Liverpool captain was quick to point out the similarities to the referee, Andrew Madley. But unlike Andy Robertson at the Etihad Stadium, Ndoye made no obvious action in front of Alisson and the goal stood. The Premier League confirmed: “The referee’s call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Ndoye was not in the line of vision of Alisson and did not make an action that impacted an opponent.”
Liverpool were reprieved by the match officials and VAR two minutes later when Jesus believed he had doubled Forest’s advantage. Konaté, who endured a dreadful afternoon, made an unconvincing attempt to clear an Ibrahim Sangaré cross and turned the ball against the Forest striker, who controlled before finding the bottom corner of Alisson’s goal. Madley, in contact with his assistant, disallowed the effort for a handball that various replays struggled to confirm or deny. The Premier League stated: “The referee’s call of no goal was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that Jesus accidentally handled the ball before scoring.”
after newsletter promotion
So much for the reprieve. Within seconds of the restart Mac Allister failed to cut out a pass towards Neco Williams inside the Liverpool penalty area. The former Liverpool defender spun away from his marker and laid Forest’s second on a plate for fellow full back Savona, who found Alisson’s top corner with a simple side-foot finish.
Slot went for broke, replacing Konaté with Hugo Ekitiké after 55 minutes and partnering the France forward alongside Isak. That experiment lasted all of 13 minutes before Isak was withdrawn following another anonymous display. Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha were also thrown into the Liverpool attack but carelessness in possession and solid Forest defending kept the hosts at bay.
The visitors showed the finesse and penetration that Liverpool were lacking in the final third to put the contest beyond doubt late on. Murillo’s cross-field ball found Omari Hutchinson in space on the right and the Forest substitute cut inside Robertson before bringing a fine save out of Alisson. The rebound dropped to Gibbs-White, who swept a cool finish into the Kop goal from 12 yards.
