Liverpool slumped to a first defeat of the Arne Slot era in uninspiring fashion at Anfield, with lessons to be learned for the new man in charge.
Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest
Premier League (4), Anfield
September 14, 2024
Goals; Hudson-Odoi 72’
Poor decisions from players and manager
Bad decisions in the final third thwarted numerous Liverpool attacks and chances to win throughout this game.
It was something that affected the whole team, suggesting it might not be a case of individual poor performance, but an issue with the setup.
One Mohamed Salah shot in the second half summed up their attacking play as it landed closer to the corner flag than to the goal.
When in a promising position with 15 minutes to go, Salah took a shot when he had three teammates lining up at the far post.
It was not just Salah; Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz also struggled in attack, and those behind them weren’t much better.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s pass success in the Premier League so far this season has been at an impressive 93%, but in this game, it was down to 78%.
Salah’s has also been high for a forward at 87%, but in this game, it dropped to 70%.
There was a sloppiness that bordered on confusion at times and at one point two players ran into each other while looking to take control of an attacking move.
Alongside the trouble the players were having, none of Slot’s changes to remedy the situation worked, and the second faded out rather than bringing Liverpool back into the game.
Not much for Anfield to get behind
Partly due to this sloppy play on the ball, there was not much for fans to get behind at any point.
Lacking some of the heavy metal, tireless counter-pressing, it was left to the play on the ball to get the crowd going, and it rarely did.
Diaz hit the post and Matz Sels almost dropped the ball into his own goal, but other than these moments there was no real verve on the field in to liven the crowd in the stands.
These lulls did occasionally happen under Jurgen Klopp, of course, and this won’t always happen under the new regime, but there was something flat about this whole display.
Some of it was down to the way Forest set up, and the visitors did well, but a frustrated Anfield reflected a group of frustrated players.
Liverpool only had five shots on target to Forest’s three despite having 70% possession.
In the future, there might need to be a little more forcing of the issue in an attempt to create a winning atmosphere.
A debut for Federico Chiesa late on would have provided some impetus and got the crowd going, but bizarrely he was left out of the squad and four defenders were named on the bench instead.
Trent slotting into midfield revisited
If we thought Slot’s arrival would signal the end of Trent Alexander-Arnold the midfielder, we were mistaken.
In an attempt to inject something different into Liverpool’s struggling attack in the second half, Conor Bradley came on to replace Alexis Mac Allister which saw Trent move into midfield.
It meant the shape of the midfield three was more 1-2 than the two holding midfielders we’ve seen in recent weeks with Gravenberch and Mac Allister behind Szoboszlai in a 2-1 midfield formation.
In this new formation, Trent was up alongside Szoboszlai with Gravenberch holding on his own in front of the back four.
At both England and Liverpool so far this season it had seemed the Trent midfield experiment had been abandoned, but Slot showed that it remains an option at club level.
On this showing, though, he might avoid it in the future.
Losing the duels
While Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate were generally dominant at the back, across the rest of the pitch Liverpool struggled to win the scraps.
For much of the game Liverpool’s ground duels won percentage stood at around 35%, and so it ended.
Nottingham Forest’s full-backs were especially active in this area, with Ola Aina and Alex Moreno performing well against Salah and Diaz for an hour until Liverpool made changes.
Alexander-Arnold finished the game having only won four of 12 ground duels contested, per FotMob.
With Slot having emphasised this area of the game when he subbed Jarell Quansah at half time in the opening game of the season, he will likely be disappointed with this display, and may cite it as a reason it was lost.
Rotation soon?
Bar the Quansah moment, Slot has stuck with the same lineup for each of his games as Liverpool manager so far.
There is a busy run of fixtures to come, though, and this will test his ability to get back to winning ways while also using his squad.
It is a new test for Slot, who admitted in his press conference prior to this game that he was not used to rotating his team much at his previous club, Feyenoord.
“My former teams we were able to actually play almost every game with the same players but it is a different league so I might have to adjust to that” he said.
“We have more than 11 very good players so I can use more.”
With the lack of battles won and the need for someone to be active defensively in midfield, it’s a surprise Wataru Endo was not used at all but by the time Liverpool realised they might have needed him in this game, it was too late.
Seven of the starting XI had played the maximum 180 minutes for their respective country during the international break, and it showed.
Liverpool 0-1 Forest
