The clean sheets, comfortable wins and all-round Arne Slot love-in came to a shocking end as the Reds were beaten 1-0 at Anfield by the other Reds, Nottingham Forest nicking the points and shutting out our attack.
Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Premier League (4), Anfield
September 14, 2024
Goal: Hudson-Odoi 71′
Alisson – 6 (out of 10)
Had a lovely view of the afternoon football for about an hour then saved one down to his left easily.
Only had two more things to do in the game; sadly one was a belter of a strike into his bottom corner for his first conceded goal of the season before he later denied Elanga one-on-one.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 7 (Man of the Match)
A couple of decent deliveries and one first-half corner which saw him go straight for goal – caught under the bar by the keeper.
Second half he played a few good passes from deep and eyebrows would definitely have been raised when Bradley was ready to come on – but Trent instead was pushed into midfield, a real No. 8 role this time in what was quickly a ‘true’ 4-3-3.
Kept the ball moving quickly enough even with no immense creativity. First full 90 of the season, booked late on. As per FotMob, he created a game high of four chances and 17 passes into the final third.
Ibrahima Konate – 6
Aerially strong when we needed him to be, showed that recovery pace we rely on at times. But the goal came with a run past and inside him, bending into the far corner.
Virgil van Dijk – 7
Dominant to clear Forest’s succession of high balls and set-pieces, particularly near the end of the first half.
Not much he could offer beyond what he did, blocking out a few dribbles and clearing whatever he needed to. No big moments of danger came down his side. Headed just over late on.
Andy Robertson – 4
Always seemed a yard short on 50-50s, flowing moves and overlapping runs, then also from a through pass which would have seen him into the box.
Beaten by Elanga within a minute of him coming on and booked. Not his finest outing of the campaign, probably fortunate to not be subbed earlier.
Ryan Gravenberch – 6
Back at the base for the most part and a strong showing with his recovery work and ability to turn out of challenges, while a few through balls from deep were as progressive as Liverpool got at times too.
Alexis Mac Allister – 6
Some neat through-balls and one shot on target probably made him the stand-out performer in the first half, but it wasn’t too notable and it wasn’t by much in a low-key restart to the Reds’ league proceedings.
He was replaced on the hour mark but that might have been more to do with international break travels and a knock he took with Argentina than anything else.
Dominik Szoboszlai – 4
Misplaced too many passes in the first half and more than once held up play when the Reds would have benefitted from quicker distribution.
Moved left of centre when Mac Allister went off and didn’t really make anything happen beyond a late shot, deflected just wide. Really poor outing.
Mo Salah – 4
Very quiet first half and spurned a great chance near the end when his touch wasn’t quite good enough to take a long pass under his spell.
Quickly made a chance after the restart with a twisting dribble and right-footed strike, but looked to be getting frustrated soon after and took a few swing-and-miss wild efforts.
Most infuriating of all were his succession of wasted square balls across the box, none of which found their mark and wasted decent positions.
Diogo Jota – 6
Had a couple of moments where he linked play neatly or turned well to win a foul, while his best sight of goal in the opening exchanges saw him side-foot at the keeper from an awkward height.
A decent showing of movement and endeavour, but never really any big goal threat or ability to fashion chances for others.
Luis Diaz – 6
Some great work to fashion a chance from nothing in the first half, but just scratched the post with it. Almost scored a loopy nothing header too when the ‘keeper dropped it between his own legs!
Didn’t have as explosive a match overall but we have to factor in the South American travel exertions to that.
Substitutes
Darwin Nunez (on for Jota, 60′) – 5 – We needed his chaos, we only got his poor touches.
Cody Gakpo (on for Diaz, 60′) – 5 – Offered absolutely nothing in terms of energy, creativity, speed or shooting.
Conor Bradley (on for Mac Allister, 60′) – 4 – Beaten twice in 10 minutes by the same player, first for a big chance and then a goal.
Kostas Tsimikas (on for Robertson, 74′) – 5 – Odd half-position for him, sort of centre-back but also wide at times. Didn’t work.
Curtis Jones (on for Konate, 74′) – 5 – First appearance of the season, not much to show for it.
Subs not used: Kelleher, Gomez, Quansah, Endo
Arne Slot – 4
His first taste of the post-international break malaise that Liverpool love to bring forth and subject fans to.
Didn’t appear to be too big a fan of it, as he gave the starters 10 minutes after the break and then started readying the troops for a triple change.
We haven’t seen too much in the way of major tactical alterations to the main plan from Slot just yet, so this was a turn-up in that regard; a chop-and-change with Trent into midfield, then another double sub to send us to a back three…sort of. It was a muddle, fair to say.
In short, the changes not working was the bigger issue. Slot spoke in the week about needing to rotate more at Anfield than he did at Feyenoord; this type of match shows why that’s so important – not just in physical terms but in getting bigger performances out of some players.
Regardless, by selection, subs or half-time team talk, Slot didn’t get a response from his side this time, the first time it hasn’t happened and not great timing: home, before the Champions League starts against a bottom-half team.
Honeymoon is over, now the realisation of the job has to set in. Slot must get it right, immediately.
Liverpool 0-1 Forest
