5 Things we learned from Liverpool’s draw with Nottingham Forest
What is going on at Liverpool? It’s obviously too early to be talking about a crisis but this has been a really worrying start to the Premier League by Liverpool under Andoni Iraola, although Liverpool were dominating possession early on Forest looked the more dangerous side countering at every opportunity similar to the Newcastle game last week. It took 24 minutes for us to get our first goal as long punt by Sels made its way to Igor Jesus in the Liverpool box who found Gibbs-White just behind him who laid the ball off to Dan Ndoye who found the corner with a brilliant finish to give Forest a deserved lead, going into half-time Forest easily could have been 2-0 up had it not been for a wonder-save by Alisson on Igor Jesus but they would have been happy enough with the lead at the break. Liverpool were much improved in the second half building momentum which did eventually lead to the equaliser in the 60th minute as Floarian Wirtz played a lovely ball through to Cody Gakpo who rolled Neco Williams before firing an unbelievable ball across the box for Alexander Isak who scored the easiest goal of his life to get Liverpool back in the game, Oliver Glasner made a couple of changes to try and wrestle back control which paid off as a quick throw from Liam Delap put Neco Williams through who was wiped out by Alisson after poking the ball just wide of the post. The referee pointed to the spot awarding Nottingham Forest a penalty which was duly dispatched by Morgan Gibbs-White to give Forest back the lead, a lead which lasted 15 minutes as Liverpool equalised yet again after Floarian Wirtz played a brilliant ball through to Victor Munoz who turned magically before hammering the ball off the bar past Sels to rescue a draw in the end for Liverpool in the 82nd minute. An entertaining game to say the least but not the result Iraola would have wanted in his first Premier League game at Anfield.
There’s big problems for Liverpool at the start of the season. I think it goes without saying at this point that there are massive problems currently at Liverpool and none more so than in midfield, they were getting ran through time after time last week at St James Park so Iraola decides to drop Gravenberch for Mac Allister? A strange move considering I thought the Dutchman was one of Liverpool’s better players last week and it was a change that didn’t work today as Liverpool’s midfield got overran yet again, which puts more pressure on a defence with cracks all over it especially at full-back. I thought Jeremy Frimpong had a calamitous season last year at right-back but it’s somehow got worse in these first two games with his play in the final third making me want pour bleach in my eyes, at Leverkusen he was electric going forward but he seems to have lost all quality going forward since stepping foot in England and I can imagine he won’t last much longer in the starting 11. On a more positive note I thought Floarian Wirtz played well today and was a massive part of both goals which has to be encouraging for Iraola following a poor performance last week, the same can’t be said for Alexander Isak who yet again looked miles off the pace despite scoring a tap-in I thought his overall game was really poor and I can’t help but feel like we are never going to see the Newcastle version of Isak at Anfield. Overall Iraola will be really disappointed not to win this game but I feel like the draws are covering over even bigger cracks in this team, surely it can’t get worse at Ipswich next week?
An encouraging display from Oliver Glanser’s Nottingham Forest. Having lost his first two games in charge to Leeds at home in the Premier League and Carabao Cup it was important that Forest gave a good account of themselves at Anfield today and that’s exactly what they did, from the first whistle they looked the more dangerous and were well worthy of the lead with a brilliant finish from Dan Ndoye. Had Igor Jesus converted that chance on the edge of half-time we could be having a discussion about Forest winning the game this afternoon but a world-class save from Alisson kept Liverpool in the game, their performance did drop off in the second half for quite some time but the introduction of Liam Delap added some spring to their step with the Englishman playing a huge part in the winning of the penalty taking a quick throw to send Neco Williams through. I’m far from Liam Delap’s biggest fan but if he can replicate his Ipswich form from a couple of years ago he’'ll undoubtedly be an asset to this Forest side, on the whole it looks like Oliver Glasner is going to be a solid fit at Forest with the likes of Gibbs-White, Ndoye, Murillo, Igor Jesus all fitting nicely into this system. I’m sure he’d like a few more before the window closes.
How can Liverpool sort out this mess? I’m not sure I can fit this all into one point but Iraola’s side undoubtedly look super light-weight in the middle of the park, Gravenberch has to come back in there immediately and alongside a proper midfielder that can play in the pivot. I thought Trey Nyoni looked alright when he came on but I’d be flabbergasted if Liverpool didn’t sign a midfielder before the window ends, defensively there problems as well so I’d either move Szoboszlai to right-back or start Araujo there against Ipswich. You’d think you’re losing something going forward but trust me Araujo couldn’t possibly do a worse job than Frimpong going forward at the minute, I did think it was strange that Victor Munoz started on the left whilst Gakpo played on the right and it didn’t really work other thank Gakpo’s assist for the first goal butonce Munoz moved back to the right I thought he was much better and scored his goal from that position. I mean Gakpo might not even be a Liverpool player come next week but he’s their best attacker at the minute so I’d play him on the left, Barcola is coming in to play that position and I’d be surprised if he didn’t start at Ipswich next week as Liverpool badly need his quality going forward. What would you change next week against Ipswich? I’d imagine it would be quite a lot.
Any more business to do before the window closes? We already know Barcola is coming in this week but will we see any more incomings for Liverpool this week? There’s been talk of Yankuba Minteh from Brighton but apparently that has broken down along with Ibrahim Mbaye from PSG who seems to be moving to Aston Villa in the next few days, with Cody Gakpo set to leave surely Liverpool have a winger lined up that we don’t currently know about. Priority number one should be a midfielder but it seems like Liverpool are happy enough as of right now with having no presence in there which is crazy to me, maybe there will be a surprise before the window closes on Tuesday. For Nottingham Forest apparently Daniel Munoz is coming in from Crystal Palace to play right wing-back whilst talks are advancing for Harrison Armstrong from Everton as a midfielder, knowing Forest and Marinakis they’ll have a few tricks up the sleeve before the window closes. I wonder what they’ll be ?