After not playing each other for twenty years, Nottingham Forest and Liverpool met up again just seven months after their last clash.
Only one Forest player from that line-up in March, captain Ryan Yates, would start here though, as they signed a whopping 23 players after getting promoted to the Premier League. Steve Cooper made two changes to the team that drew with Brighton, with Cheikhou Kouyaté and Taiwo Awoniyi replacing Orel Mangala and Brennan Johnson. Forest lined up in a 4-3-3 shape.
Jürgen Klopp made five changes to the side that beat West Ham in mid-week. Out went Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kostas Tsimikas, Thiago Alcântara, Jordan Henderson and Darwin Nuñez; in came James Milner, Andy Robertson, Curtis Jones, Fabinho and Harvey Elliott. Liverpool continued in their new 4-4-2 formation.
From the start, Forest opted to drop off and make themselves difficult to play through by blocking up the centre. They had various different ways of doing this: sometimes the wingers would tuck in inside next to Awoniyi in a 4-3-3 shape, sometimes they would drop back in line with the midfielders in a 4-5-1 shape, sometimes they would do one then quickly switch to the other when Liverpool moved the ball on. Through these different approaches, the consistent features were congesting the centre, and denying Liverpool space in behind them.
When Forest tried to occasionally press, Yates would push up alongside Awoniyi to stick to Jones, however these moments were few and far between, with Forest preferring to sit back.
Liverpool’s task was a familiar one, yet again needing to break down a compact side happy to let them have the ball. Given this is something they have struggled with even when they were at the top of their game, doing it during a poor season with a team decimated by injuries was going to be a tough ask.
Out with an ear infection, Liverpool were badly missing Thiago – one of the only Liverpool midfielders capable of a line-breaking pass. In his first match of the season thanks to a bone injury, Jones was asked to start in a midfield two. Given he is just 21 years old and played as an attacking midfielder in Liverpool’s youth set-up, it’s hardly surprising that he has struggled with the defensive demands of playing as a centre midfielder for Liverpool. Those defensive struggles came in a 4-3-3 with the benefit of a holding player covering behind him, yet here he was asked to be one of those deeper midfielders, tasked with even more defensive responsibility. Thrown into a completely new role that doesn’t suit his skillset without any opportunity to at least develop some match sharpness, Jones was unsurprisingly awful defensively, easily played around by Forest.
This midfield role didn’t even suit him offensively either though. Jones isn’t the kind of player to remain at the base of midfield and pick out a pass like Thiago, but rather someone who gets involved in combinations and carries the ball. It’s not exactly a surprise that the young Scouser’s best moments came when he pushed forward to join the attack, but he shouldn’t really have been doing this, as his role was at the base of the midfield.
He at least did offer something, which is more than can be said for Fabinho. The Brazilian has fallen off a cliff physically, yet somehow his attitude has been even worse, looking completely uninterested in even pretending to do his job, unlikely to ever break a sweat as he goes for his 90 minute afternoon stroll. When Liverpool had possession, Fabinho spent most of his time stood next to Awoniyi – being charitable, he may have been trying to occupy the Forest man to create space for the centre-backs to push forward into, but just as likely was that he was simply avoiding the ball. Alternatively, he frequently dropped back close to the centre-backs, meaning that when he did receive the ball, Liverpool hadn’t progressed it in any way, before either passing it backwards or sideways.
With neither of the midfielders ahead of them capable of progressing the ball, the task fell to Liverpool’s centre-backs instead, but they didn’t exactly have much to aim at, and when they did their passes were often of poor quality.
It was this issue that led to Forest’s goal. Joe Gomez looked to push forward on the ball but had no one to pass to, so cut back across himself under pressure from Awoniyi, who robbed him of the ball. Rather than let the striker run through, Gomez hauled him down to the ground, gifting Forest a free-kick. At this free-kick Steve Cook peeled off towards the flank, but neither Fabinho, who was initially marking him, nor Milner, whose zone he had entered, followed him, running back into the box instead. Milner did eventually move out to meet him, but it was already too late, as Cook crossed into the box to Yates. That shot hit the post, but the rebound fell to Awoniyi to score against his former club – a reward for the Nigerian’s hard-working performance despite being left isolated.
With Liverpool unable to progress the ball through the centre, Carvalho and Elliott tucking into the centre had little influence on the game. Both players are talented, but they are also very young and asking them to be the main creative forces breaking down this compact block was too much to ask of them so soon. The issue is that thanks to injuries and poor squad planning, Liverpool have been forced into doing so. Previously Liverpool struggled to break down defensive teams but a world class forward would often pop up with a goal out of nothing to break the deadlock, yet Carvalho and Elliott simply aren’t at that level – they might be one day, but not right now.
With Forest blocking up the centre, Liverpool went wide. They mainly focussed on the right, but this didn’t really work well because, being 36 years old, Milner couldn’t really get forward and stretch play consistently. He had his moments, but he also held back in defence because he physically can’t bomb up and down the flanks anymore, and, even when he did, the opportunity would often be wasted by a poor touch or pass.
Elliott would often pull wide in his place, while Roberto Firmino would make diagonal runs to attack the space behind Neco Williams as the full-back moved wide to defend.
On 62 minutes, Milner and Carvalho were hooked for Alexander-Arnold and Henderson. The right-back was an obviously more creative choice than Milner, while Henderson coming into the midfield allowed Jones to push forward into one of the attacking midfield roles that actually suit his skillset.
Liverpool had rarely done much down the left, but now did more to attack these gaps behind the full-back on that flank too.
Although it wouldn’t be a particularly subtle method, Nuñez would have been ideal to at least give Liverpool someone to aim at with their crosses into the box, but he too wasn’t fit to play.
Instead their best chances came from set-pieces. Many of Liverpool’s opening goals last season came from corners or free-kicks, and Forest were continually allowing Liverpool’s players to get free of their markers here, yet they could never quite put it in the net.
This was another poor performance but poor in a different way to most of Liverpool’s other losses this season. They weren’t overrun, but instead faced a familiar issue that they simply don’t have the tools to fix right now.
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