Saturday was a right kick in the proverbials for Liverpool. But they can’t afford to mope about it now – they need a reaction.
I was watching the game on television and early in the second half I could smell what was coming. It stank. I turned to the person I was watching with and said “we could lose this”. So it proved.
You have to give Nottingham Forest credit. They defended absolutely brilliantly and did a great job at shutting down Liverpool, and we only managed a few good chances. Once Forest went ahead, I couldn’t see where the inspiration was coming from for us. I wondered what I was watching at times.
Luis Diaz seemed the only player who could have given us a spark. He wasn’t at his best but he looked the most likely until he went off, whereas Mohamed Salah had what was surely one of his worst games ever for the club.
Liverpool had made a good start to the season and had played some decent stuff – not great, but decent. But we were all still scratching our heads trying to explain what happened against Forest when simple passes seemed beyond the players at times. Even Arne Slot probably didn’t know.
We just were nowhere near good enough. When one player doesn’t do well you can carry that, and two players sometimes. But when 60% aren’t at their level, then you are going to struggle. Forest, by contrast, were all eight out of 10 and did a good job at nullifying Alexis Mac Allister.You’d like to think it was a one-off. Ryan Gravenberch played well and Alisson and some of the defenders did okay, but at times there was not enough urgency.
I don’t care what anyone says, the international break didn’t help. We were in a great moment, and when that happens you want to keep playing and maintain the momentum. But having people go all over the world, that disrupts things. You could see that against Forest. It wasn’t the biggest issue in the game, but it didn’t help.
One worrying aspect was that the substitutions Arne Slot made actually made the team worse. Cody Gakpo barely kicked the ball and Darwin Nunez was well off it. They didn’t appear ready and weren’t sharp.
