Though Rio Ferdinand described Liverpool’s 1-1 draw at Nottingham Forest as being “like a basketball game,” the stats show Arne Slot‘s side dominated.
Forest looked to be frustrating Liverpool for the second time this season as they held onto a 1-0 lead from Chris Wood’s early strike.
But on came Kostas Tsimikas and Diogo Jota to combine for an equaliser from a corner, the left-back’s delivery and the striker’s header both coming with their first touches of the game.
It set up a tense finale which, during his commentary for TNT Sports, Ferdinand determined to be “like a basketball game.”
However, statistics via FotMob show that it was another game Liverpool dominated and, really, deserved to win.
Liverpool DID deserve more than they got
In his post-match press conference, Slot was left to rue his side only being able to take a point from the City Ground, telling reporters that Liverpool “deserve more than we got” from recent games.
“Too many times now, we deserved more than we got and this is something we have to adjust as soon as we can,” he explained.
“Our fans, our players and me, we want to win the league, but we want the fans to come and see us and like what they see.
“We played some outstanding football in the second half.”
While the narrative was that this was an end-to-end encounter that saw Forest give as good as they got, the fact is that Liverpool dominated for the majority of the 90-plus minutes.
They outperformed Forest in almost every key metric in terms of possession and attack, including four big chances to the hosts’ one, 23 shots to their six and seeing 71 percent of the ball.
Centre-back Murillo (62), midfielder Elliot Anderson (54) and left-back Neco Williams (48) were the only Forest players to finish the game with more touches than Liverpool’s least-involved outfielder, Luis Diaz (45).
Five Liverpool players created at least as many chances as Forest’s most creative player, Anthony Elanga (two) – those being Mo Salah (four), Cody Gakpo (four), Dominik Szoboszlai (three), Alexis Mac Allister (two) and Diaz (two).
When it comes to expected goals (xG), Liverpool were deemed to have ‘won’ 0.31-1.99, and even subtracting Jota’s set-piece equaliser, the open play xG was 0.27-1.51.
Ferdinand’s assessment that it was “like a basketball game” was clearly inspired by a period of constant turnovers, but the reality was that the momentum was almost always in the hands of the visitors.
Those turnovers would invariably see Liverpool regain possession and start again in attack, with Forest centre-backs Murillo (17) and Nikola Milenkovic (12) making as many clearances as every Liverpool player combined (29).
That is not to say Forest did not merit their draw – they were clinical when required and monstrous in their defensive work and winning duels.
The only area where Liverpool won a higher percentage of duels was in the air, winning 64 percent.
This also demonstrates how well Virgil van Dijk in particular dealt with Forest’s long-ball approach – the hosts sending 14.5 percent of their passes long compared to Liverpool’s 5.2 percent.
Ultimately, of course, the defining metric was on the scoreboard itself: a 1-1 draw which did not even look like happening until Tsimikas and Jota’s swift intervention.
But after a pulsating clash that was billed as an unlikely title tie, Liverpool can feel aggrieved not to have come away with the win.
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