Arne Slot didn’t pull any punches as he labelled Liverpool’s shock defeat by Nottingham Forest a “big setback”. His captain Virgil van Dijk branded it “unacceptable”.
After all the positivity generated by three straight Premier League wins at the start of a new era at Anfield, this was a painful reality check.
The performance was flat and horribly disjointed, a world away from the fluency and control Liverpool showcased in a commanding victory at Old Trafford a fortnight earlier.
So how was momentum squandered? And what does Slot need to do to put things right as the focus turns to Tuesday’s Champions League game against AC Milan at San Siro?
Slot described Liverpool’s loss as a ‘big setback’ (John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
‘By far not enough’ in attack
Slot made a beeline for fourth official Anthony Backhouse when the final whistle sounded as he appeared unhappy at the lack of stoppage time (five minutes) signalled by referee Michael Oliver.
In truth, Liverpool looked like they could have played for another hour and still not found a way to cancel out Callum Hudson-Odoi’s goal.
This wasn’t a tale of them being denied by goalkeeping heroics, injustice or a stack of misfortune. They only had themselves to blame.
The hosts had 69 per cent possession and 34 touches inside Forest’s box, but their lack of genuine threat was underlined by an expected goals (xG) of just 0.94 (as can be seen in The Athletic’s match dashboard below). Their only Opta-defined ‘big chance’ fell to Diogo Jota midway through the first half when he steered Alexis Mac Allister’s inviting cross straight at Matz Sels.
Starved of space to exploit in behind, Liverpool never got to grips with Forest’s low block. A feature of their attacking play under Slot has been the speed and precision to open up teams but on Saturday, their decision-making let them down as promising moves repeatedly came to nothing. Patience and composure were in short supply.
“We had a lot of possession but only managed to create three or four quite good chances — that is by far not enough,” Slot said after the match.
“If you play so much in their half, we need to do much better. We lost the ball so many times in simple situations. Too many individual performances in ball possession were not of the standards that I am used to from these players.”
Van Dijk added: “We were too rushed. We put the ball in the box a bit too quick or over-played it. Then you don’t get the momentum you want to get. The contrast between the games we’ve played is too big.”
Liverpool only won the ball back in the final third on three occasions (compared to seven times at Old Trafford) as Forest successfully negated the press by hitting it long towards Chris Wood.
Impact of the international break
“I don’t think it had anything to do with it,” Slot insisted when asked about his squad returning from their national teams. “The players came back strong and I saw a team that wanted to fight until the end. So it had nothing to do with energy in my opinion.”
The evidence suggested otherwise. How else do you explain such a lacklustre display?
All of Liverpool’s starting line-up had been away on international duty. Mohamed Salah played in Botswana in midweek, while Luis Diaz, Mac Allister and Alisson only reported back to Kirkby on Thursday after their commitments in South America.
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Physicality was an issue. Liverpool won just 44 per cent of their duels and the numbers for the front line were particularly disappointing: Salah won two out of eight duels, Diaz two out of seven and Jota two out of six.
Forest unsettled the hosts with their combative approach and turned it into the kind of stop-start contest that suited them.
“We lost too many second balls,” Van Dijk admitted. “We know how direct they are so playing against a big striker you can sometimes lose a challenge but you have to be ready for the second ball. Every time there was a second ball they were on the right side of it.
“They got momentum in terms of getting the winning the right challenges and they did their job very well and in terms of ourselves we weren’t good enough.”
Rather than crank up the pressure in the second half, Liverpool wilted. Slot’s triple substitution on the hour mark made them worse following the introduction of Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo and Conor Bradley, with Trent Alexander-Arnold pushed further forward. The switch to three at the back late on did little to improve things as Forest comfortably held on.
Slot’s changes did not have the desired impact (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
The midfield had been an area of such strength but standards slipped. Dominik Szoboszlai lost possession 18 times and Ryan Gravenberch did so on 12 occasions. They had played 90 minutes in Nations League matches for Hungary and the Netherlands four days earlier.
Asked about the effect of the break, Van Dijk said: “It’s difficult to say. Everyone is coming back from different places and playing a different way, but it should have gone better. We expect a lot better from ourselves. Losing at home is something that can’t happen.”
‘We had to be more aggressive’
Liverpool could have equalled a club record set in 2005 by keeping a clean sheet in their opening four league matches of a season.
With Forest sitting so deep, Slot’s side rarely looked like conceding, with the visitors having just five touches inside Liverpool’s penalty area and registering an xG of just 0.6 overall.
Yet a dour stalemate turned into a damaging defeat because Liverpool switched off and paid the price. They became less compact and easier to play through following the substitutions.
Instead of another clean sheet Liverpool were left ruing a painful defeat (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
There appeared to be little danger when Anthony Elanga picked out fellow substitute Hudson-Odoi on the right, but the former Chelsea player cut inside past Bradley far too easily. Ibrahima Konate was also slow to react and Alisson didn’t cover himself in glory as he was beaten from outside the box.
“Losing a game at home in front of our supporters is the most frustrating thing for us,” Alisson told Sky Sports. “We played better than the opponent. We didn’t deserve to lose but football is like that sometimes. We only gave away half chances but the opponent scored. We should have finished our counter-attacks up front and we should have defended better in front of our box. We had to be more aggressive.
“Hudson-Odoi had too much freedom to do whatever he wanted with the ball, dribbling inside and shooting. It was poor defending from us and we have to improve for the next game.”
So what now?
There’s little time for Liverpool to lick their wounds. After training at Kirkby on Monday, they fly to Milan for Tuesday’s opening Champions League game.
Paulo Fonseca’s side put their difficult start behind them with an emphatic 4-0 win over Venezia on Saturday, their first victory of the Serie A season.
There will be no knee-jerk reaction from Slot but he has much to ponder given the paucity of what was served up against Forest.
Summer signing Federico Chiesa is expected to be named in the squad for the first time after missing out at the weekend as he did further individual training to build up his fitness.
“If you want to dwell on things it is only going to backfire on yourself,” Van Dijk said.
“We’re already thinking about recovery and being ready for Tuesday. That’s how we live our lives but the disappointment is still there.”
(Top photo: Peter Byrne/PA Images via Getty Images)
