2 months ago
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Photo by Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images
With a loss to Nottingham Forest in the books, we take a closer look at what it all means for the Reds.
Liverpool return from the international break is predictable form, dropping their first loss in the Arne Slot Era to Nottingham forest at Anfield. It was a frustrating day filled with near moments and what looked like tired legs from traveling across the globe for international duty. Let’s take a closer look at what went down.
Winners and Losers (Header2)
Winners
Nottingham Forest’s Defense
Stingy, organized, and physical one might be forgiven if you felt like the opening 45 of the match felt like a grind. Given that many of Liverpool’s players found themselves on the match due to interactions with Forest players (looking at you, Ryan Yates) that more closely resembled The Kumite than a Premier League match, there was very little flow throughout. It is a style that much more suited Forest that wanted to slow down Liverpool’s transition work and force the Reds to break down an organized and settled defense. Liverpool had no answer.
Rival Castaways
Former Manchester United youth prospect Anthony Elanga and former Chelsea youth prospect Callum Hudson-Odoi combined for Forest’s winner. It’s certainly a bit of a needle to see the cast-offs of rivals harming us, but a tiny silver-lining is that it kind of underscores the instability and short-sighted chaos that comes from organizations that lack an identity and vision. I am quite happy to trade rare one-offs like today in favor of a system and set of processes that has, for the majority of the last 10+ years has succeeded much more than it’s failed.
Losers
Arne Slot’s Perfect Record
He was never going to be perfect but it would have been to root for another run at invincibility. Klopp’s two nearly seasons (the Quad in particular) stand out. More importantly, though, it reminds us that this is a season of transition. There will be bumps, and now it will be time to see how Slot and company respond to the first one of the campaign.
Fans of Free Flowing Football
As mentioned above, Forest did a number on Liverpool to ensure that the pace was choppy. I don’t know how often we’ll face a defense this physical - thought I wouldn’t put this performance up with, say, a Tony Pulis side - but the Reds will definitely want to gameplan for what may be a straightforward 90 minutes of “professional fouls.”
Mentality Monsters
Not that this didn’t happen during certain points in previous campaigns, nor is it necessarily bewildering given how frustrating the day was in general, but it was a bit of a change in experiences to see so many of the players visibly demonstrate their angst as the clock wound down. It gave an air of desperation and urgency that one might commend, but it also lacked the type of composed resolve that we’d come to expect from Liverpool. Will be interesting to see how the squad bounces back with such a congested fixture list.
Talking Tactics
There are likely a lot of explanations for this - namely, chasing the match - but Liverpool essentially finished in what might be described as a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3, with the back three being Virgil Van Dijk, Conor Bradley, and Kostas Tsimikas. Trent Alexander Arnold was nominally listed as a right back but moved into midfield next to Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo and Dom Szoboszlai were nominally wide-ish midfielders while Curtis Jones played centrally to add numbers. Lastly, Darwin Nuñez and Mo Salah were tasked with staying high. I made sense given the state of the game and the run of play, with Liverpool having around 70% of the ball deep into the second half. But it was quite disjointed and also left a lot of risk at the back as the Reds worked to find the equalizer. It didn’t work, but it certainly is intriguing to see how much risk Slot is willing to take on when angling for a result.
Dissecting the Narrative
A lot of the narrative, I imagine, will likely be a reassessment of Liverpool’s “structure” which has been the buzzword of the young season. In the opening few matches of the season, Liverpool’s defense looked incredibly stingy. In this match, some might point to the chance that lead to the goal as well as a chance or two that came to Forest late on. However, it’s important to remember that those chances came when Liverpool decided to go with their 1 center-back approach as they were chasing the goal. And even allowing that the xG in the match likely flatters Forest given that, Liverpool still put up bigger xG numbers based on a cursory glance at a few different sites: a little north of .90 xG for Liverpool and just north of .60 for Forest.
Ultimately, though, what came through feels more like a failure of the offense. The attack simply didn’t create enough - that felt apparent throughout the match and is validated by the lowest xG output of the young season, coming in about half the output against United and nearly a third that against Ipswich and Brentford. Now, there’s reason to think that Forest are a better side than all of those - and a reminder that Liverpool lost at Forest in March of this year. But the numbers really don’t lie: Liverpool’s attack simply weren’t good enough, affirming that the collection of misplayed passes, confused running patterns, and under hit final balls are what really led to Liverpool’s downfall.
