Forest Offer Glimmer Of Hope Despite Defeat

Football is an interesting game – sometimes, even the best of performances from a side can lead to a loss – and while that is not necessarily the story of Nottingham Forest’s defeat to Liverpool this weekend, it was one of/if not the best performances since the Leicester win in January, three months ago, despite the scoreline.

Line-up thoughts:

A bit of a contrast from recent games, Steve Cooper opted to drop Brennan Johnson to the bench – a move which, before the game, was widely questioned by the Forest fanbase – in came Orel Mangala, and an extra body in the midfield, with Taiwo Awoniyi on his own ‘up-top’.

More men in the midfield was necessary for the Reds, perhaps the weakest part of the side is their midfield, and that is not to say because they are unable to perform as a quality midfield, but rather that there wasn’t enough manpower to do so – this move, I found, to be sensible, and welcomed it much so.

Interesting also to see the use of Danilo & Morgan Gibbs-White as “two 10’s”, if you will, behind Taiwo, and provide the delivery he needs, while Freuler and Mangala break down the play, and act as ‘enforcers’ in the midfield-four.

This formation, as shown below, looked to me like a 5-4-1, something which I would be keen to see featured again in coming weeks.

Navas – Williams, Felipe, Niakhate, McKenna, Lodi – Freuler, Mangala, Danilo, Gibbs-White – Awoniyi.

The First half:

The first half was rather interesting: although stats would suggest complete and utter dominance from Liverpool, with over 80% possession throughout the entirety of the opening 45, spectators will tell a fairly different story – one where, yes, Liverpool did have the ball more, but where they also played a significant amount of misplaced passes – giving Forest chances to run on the counter, or as they did, press well and force even more on the anxiety of the defensive squadron for Liverpool – none enough so to force more than an anxiety, however. Everything seemed intact – Forest working cohesively, like a well-oiled machine in many aspects, definitely in the defensive department, but it wouldn’t be a Forest game this season without an injury blow, as Scott Mckenna is forced off the pitch which is believed to be a broken collar bone – he was escorted off the pitch, down the tunnel, and taken to a local medical facility in due course – this comes just a couple of weeks after returning from a hamstring injury. Joe Worrall replaced the Scotsman, and made an immediate positive impact – something which has gone much unmentioned in many of his most recent appearances, a huge improvement in his performances.

The Second Half:

Following a short break came the second half, what would turn out to be an absolute spectacle at one of the greatest grounds in English football – Anfield – ensued, with 5 goals scored, and frowns turned into smiles, and the latter, within just five minutes, it was a rollercoaster of emotions.

Unfortunately, it didn’t start in Forest’s favour, with Steve Coopers side conceding inside just two minutes of play, as Alexander-Arnold’s cross is headed into the goal area, finds Fabinho who heads it square across the box, before Portuguese bagsman, Diogo Jota, heads it home and brings the scoring to 1-0. (1-0).

While doom and gloom spread on social media after the goal, Nottingham Forest got back to work, and quickly silenced the negativity, after Morgan Gibbs-White’s fine pass across the LFC box, found former Liverpool man, Neco Williams, in fields of space, which lead to a fine first-touch right-footed finish, which took a slight deflection before hitting the back of the Liverpool net. (1-1).

Once again however, Forest would find themselves on the backfoot as Liverpool took the lead for the second time in just under ten minutes, as Diogo Jota takes on a fantastic first-touch from another Alexander-Arnold set piece, on his knee, turns, and places a sublime left-footed volley into the bottom right-hand corner of Keylor Navas’ goal. (2-1).

Nottingham Forest hadn’t scored more than two goals since early March, and had only scored two in their last four games, so the idea of another equaliser and a comeback looked incredibly unlikely – but testament to their valiance, as mentioned in the headline, they came back once more. This time, Morgan Gibbs-White found himself with another goal contribution, this time in the form of a half-bicycle kick, which rocketed into the Liverpool goal, quieting the Kop in the 67th minute, in spectacular fashion. (2-2).

Liverpool would have the last laugh however, as Mohamed Salah finishes his 16th goal of the season, as Trent Alexander-Arnold found himself once again on the assists sheet, after a cross into the penalty area where Salah fired past the Forest goalkeeper, largely unchallenged in perhaps the most sensitive area of the pitch. (3-2).

Refreshingly, Steve Cooper opted to, what I interpreted as, a 3-4-3, as he brought on the likes of Sam Surridge, Emmanuel Dennis & Andre Ayew in the closing stages of the match – showing a positive outlook, one of a team that wasn’t giving up just yet. Forest then came close with an overhead effort from Awoniyi which just missed the crossbar, and substitute Brennan Johnson’s shot hitting the crossbar this time – two close chances. Even with the changes, and the chances however, Cooper’s men fell to defeat once again, but this wasn’t a bad performance from Forest, if anything, a major improvement on recent form, of which could have been completely different should the defensive aspect of the Forest performance had been tighter in some scenarios.

Steve Cooper’s thoughts after the defeat:

Following the game, Steve Cooper discussed his thoughts on the defeat:

“In terms of the game in general, I thought we minimised Liverpool to very little from open play which is not an easy task. The boys stuck to the plan, believed in the plan and delivered it well.

“We know that we have found it hard to score goals away from home, so to score two at Anfield shows that we’ve done some good things in the game.

“To come out of the game knowing that we’ve scored two goals, hit the crossbar and concede from three set pieces is really frustrating.

“We’ve got to keep believing. It’s a big week coming up and we have a home game next. It doesn’t matter who we play at home, we’re always in with a good chance of winning because of the support and the atmosphere we get and we need them more than ever.

“We’ve got to turn up on Wednesday with a lot of things we’ve done today, plus more. Everybody has got to do more and that continues until we get what we want.”

A well-rounded take from Steve Cooper, while he understands the hard work and decent performance that his side has just partaken in, he was not blind to the idea that there were mistakes, costly mistakes, made in the most dangerous areas – Liverpool players left mostly unchallenged on every goal scoring occasion.

My Post-match thoughts:

As I’ve touched on throughout the review so far, I felt that it was a decent performance all-round from Nottingham Forest. The lineup, shown earlier in the report, was a strong one – consisting of the back five, and a, what looked like, 5-4-1, with Danilo & Morgan Gibbs-White the creative pairing ready to assist striker, Taiwo Awoniyi, at any given moment.

Tactically, the Reds (Forest) looked organised, and like they’ve built themselves up both physically and mentally for this game, which given the wider context after Liverpool’s most recent 6-1 thumping of Leeds at Elland Road, a venue Forest lost at just weeks before, is another reason to suggest performance has improved – there was fight, character and desire to win – something which most would argue the side have lacked recently.

It would be naïve however to ignore the major talking point on the negative side of Forest’s game: the defensive errors. For the most part, as mentioned before, a strong back line lead by Felipe made it incredibly difficult for the opposition to score, but in the second half it felt like basic mistakes were made – Liverpool were given far too much time in the Forest box, and while it was a great finish, Jota should have never been allowed to have two in-air touches before placing the shot in the Forest net – a poor way to concede, and unfortunately that was the devastating part of Forest’s defeat, the fact that such errors were controllable, rather than wonder-goals with no chance of interception. Conceding after scoring has been an all-to-common feature this season for Forest, but, despite this, there were glimmers of hope in that performance – reasons to be optimistic.

Not only did Nottingham Forest put two past a top side in Liverpool, but they scored two excellent equalisers, and came close on a couple of occasions. Arguably, if Forest were to maintain such a desire and fighting mentality in the remaining fixtures, there is absolutely no reason why they can’t steal the needed points before the clock ticks time on this Premier League season.

Six games left, 24 points in contention, 7-10 needed – it’s entirely possible, but the mentality has to be right, and the immense support of Forest’s excellent fanbase will no doubt only positively impact this.

My Man Of The Match:

Neco Williams has to be my Man of The Match today – an excellent defensive performance, topped up by an excellent equaliser against his former side, in front of an intimidating Kop. I well and truly believe that was his best performance in a Forest shirt – a personal showcase of confidence, warrior mentality, and forward-thinking play earns him my vote for Man Of The Match, he was superb.

For a young-man like Neco, at the age of just 22, Premier League football is a huge step that most don’t make in their professional career, bare in mind in their early twenties – and with Serge Aurier out with suspected hamstring injury still, the position was a difficult one to fill in for, but I felt he really stepped up to the ‘plate’, and will only get better from here.

Player Ratings:

A bit of a first for me, but these are my player ratings for the Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest game and, as always, I’m keen to hear your opinions, and ratings.

Navas – 8/10 – some incredibly important saves, great distribution, good performance from him.

Lodi – 7/10 – strong defensive performance, broke the play well down the left-hand side.

Niakhate – 6.5/10 – a good game, some mistakes, and close calls, but not a bad performance from him.

Felipe – 7.5/10 – like an ox, incredibly strong – doesn’t waste possession after a tackle, rather takes it on – consistent, another good game from him.

Mckenna – 7/10 – when he played, he made some important tackles and kept the back-line tight, shame he came off.

Worrall – 7/10 – again, a composed performance from Joe Worrall.

Williams – 9/10 – great defending, strong/good skill going forward, and a goal, deserves the greatest score.

Freuler – 6.5/10 – often comes under quite a bit of stick, but had a decent game today, and was steady on the ball.

Mangala – 7.5/10 – I felt that, despite the odd mistake, starting Mangala was a great decision, his strength and ability to link play is good.

Danilo – 8/10 – really starting to find his place in the first-team, good link-up with Gibbs White, had a good game – he’s due a goal!

Gibbs-White – 8.5/10 – hard to not give a player my vote for MOTM after a goal and an assist, but it’s good to see Morgan hit form again after a quieter patch.

Taiwo Awoniyi – 8.5/10 – Taiwo was excellent today, although not scoring, he came close, and showed his physicality and ability to play off the shoulder really well – Konate struggled to contain him.

*Brennan Johnson, Sam Surridge, Emmanuel Dennis & Andre Ayew all left without rating due to the amount of game time they got*

Looking ahead: Brighton (h) Wed 26th April 2023 (19:30)

A Wednesday night fixture against one of the Premier League’s most upcoming sides, Brighton & Hove Albion, arrives next week – Roberto De Zerbi’s side hoping that they can continue good form and beat Nottingham Forest, but will have to face Manchester United just days before in the FA Cup Semi-finals. Of course, the ideal situation for Forest being that Brighton are tired following the game, and struggle to make an chances they get pay-off, but as recent form suggests, it isn’t quite as simple as that – Brighton, I anticipate, will be a tougher test to even that of Liverpool, but by no means does that mean Forest cannot pick up points against the Seagulls, like they did earlier in the season.

Three huge points at stake – potential Champions League qualification for the seasiders, and a desperate desire to stay in the Prem for Nottingham Forest – two extremes, three points is the only viable outcome for either side, really.

Thank you for reading this review from the Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest game, as written by Jamie Martin.

Hearing your feedback is key for the work we do, and any opinions you have on this article or Forest’s form in general, please contact us and let us know what you think.

Have a great week, and I’ll see you soon.