Liverpool 3 Nottingham Forest 0
Liverpool welcomed Nottingham Forest to Anfield, which has not proved to be a happy hunting ground for the visitors in the history of their football club. Jurgen Klopp’s side were rocked by the news of Luis Diaz’s parents being abducted in Columbia and the player understandably did not play.
The visitors had suffered some injuries themselves and set out a side without a recognised striker as they opted to play a back five for the game. Salah played the ball into Nunez early on and the Uruguayan tried his luck from a tight angle but Turner managed to block.
The resulting corner came in and found Nunez with a free header but he could not keep his effort under the crossbar. People lament the finishing of the Liverpool striker but he does get himself into positions in the channels often.
As Forest tried to come forward, they lost the ball and Liverpool countered at pace. Mohamed Salah fed it into the path of Darwin Nunez, whose shot was well saved by Turner. Diogo Jota was on hand to slot the rebound home.
Credit: @LFC
Szoboszlai dominated the centre of midfield and he passed the ball to Salah who played him back in and the Hungarian cut it back from the byline for Nunez to finish. After keeping Klopp’s side out for half an hour, they had now conceded two goals in four minutes.
Liverpool continued to dominate and Turner was called into action as Gravenberch shot from outside the box but as the ball was half cleared, Szoboszlai tried his luck with a left-footed effort which the Forest keeper made another good save from.
Steve Cooper’s side were well and truly under the cosh and were in danger of completely folding at this stage of the game. When Liverpool are in this rampant mood, it is difficult to stop them, such is the intensity of Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Early in the second half, the visitors finally did create a chance as Gibbs-White strayed out wide to receive the ball in acres of space. As he drilled a pass into the path of Dominguez, the midfielder got it all wrong as he tripped himself up as he tried to adjust his feet.
Forest were only a goal away from turning this back into a game once again. As they launched a throw in into the box, Szoboszlai picked it up in his own box and launched a long range pass forward towards Salah.
The visitors then turned into the Keystone Cops as Turner came rushing out of his box to try and cut out the pass. Both he and his defender seemed to leave the ball to one another and as it bounced over the keeper’s head, Salah picked it up to roll the ball into an empty net.
Credit: @LFC
Cooper will have been livid as the last thing you need to do at Anfield is gift them chances. The closest his side came to troubling Alisson in the Liverpool goal was when a deep cross was met by Elanga on the volley but his effort crashed back into play off the underside of the crossbar.
Harvey Elliott set up Cody Gakpo as he tapped the ball into the Forest goal but the lack of celebration from the young Dutchman suggested he may have thought he was offside. VAR checked it and it was an easy decision to make as The Reds’ player was a good yard ahead of play.
It was a convincing win for Jurgen Klopp’s side which keeps them in the mix at the top of the table, their only defeat this season being that questionable performance by officials at Tottenham. Forest will not have come here expecting to win but would have hoped to cause Liverpool more problems in the final third.
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