Arne Slot’s clean sheets, comfortable wins and all-round love-in came to a shocking end when the Reds were beaten 1-0 at Anfield by the other Reds, Nottingham Forest take the points and shut down our attack.

Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest

Premier League (4), Anfield
September 14, 2024

Goal: Hudson-Odoi 71′

Alisson – 6 (out of 10)

I had a great view of the afternoon soccer game for about an hour, after which I easily caught one to my left.

He only had two more things to do in the game. Unfortunately, one of them was a shot into his bottom corner, scoring his first goal of the season. He later stopped Elanga one-on-one.

Trent Alexander-Arnold – 7 (Man of the Match)

A couple of decent crosses and a corner in the first half, where he went straight at goal – but the keeper caught the ball under the bar.

He made some good passes from long range in the second half and eyebrows would certainly have been raised if Bradley had been set to come on – but Trent was instead pushed into midfield, this time a proper number 8 role in what quickly became a ‘proper’ 4-3-3.

Kept the ball moving quickly enough, even without immense creativity. First full 90 of the season, booked late in the game. According to FotMob, he created a game high of four chances and 17 passes in the final third.

Ibrahima Konate – 6

Aerially strong when we needed him, showed the recovery pace we sometimes rely on, but the goal came with a run past and inside him, curving into the far corner.

Virgil van Dijk – 7

Dominant in clearing Forest’s series of high balls and set pieces, especially towards the end of the first half.

He couldn’t offer much more than what he did, block a few dribbles and clear what he needed to. No big dangerous moments came his way. Headed just over in the last minutes.

Andy Robertson-4

He always seemed to fall short in 50-50s, fluid movement and overlapping runs, as well as a through ball that would get him into the box.

Beaten by Elanga within a minute of his arrival and booked. Not his best performance of the campaign, probably lucky he wasn’t substituted earlier.

Ryan Gravenberch – 6

He was largely back in the starting line-up and put in a strong performance with his recovery work and ability to get out of challenges, and his long-range through balls were sometimes a lot more progressive than Liverpool.

Alexis Mac Allister – 6

With some nice through balls and one shot on target he was probably the standout performer in the first half, but it wasn’t anything special and it didn’t come close to a modest restart of the competition for the Reds.

He was substituted after an hour, but that probably had more to do with the international break and the setback he had suffered with Argentina.

Dominik Szoboszlai – 4

In the first half, too many passes were misdirected and play was held up more than once, while the Reds would have benefited from a quicker distribution.

Moved to the left of centre when Mac Allister went off and didn’t really make anything other than a late shot, just wide. Really poor performance.

Mo Salah – 4

Very quiet first half and he missed a big chance towards the end when his touch wasn’t good enough to handle a long pass.

After the restart he was quickly given a chance with a spinning dribble and a right-footed shot, but he quickly appeared to become frustrated and was left with a number of wild attempts.

Most frustrating was his succession of wasted square balls into the penalty area, none of which found their target and which cost him significant positions.

Diogo Jota – 6

He had a few moments where he linked the play together nicely or turned well to win a foul, while his best chance on goal came in the opening stages when he fired a shot at the keeper with his foot from an awkward height.

A decent display of movement and effort, but never really a major threat on goal or the ability to create chances for others.

Luis Diaz – 6

Great job creating a chance out of nothing in the first half but just hitting the post. Nearly scored a loopy nothing header when the keeper dropped it between his own legs!

The match overall was not that explosive, but we also have to add the trip to South America to that.

Substitutes

Darwin Nunez (on for Jota, 60′) – 5 – We needed his chaos, but all we got was his bad passes.

Cody Gakpo (on for Diaz, 60′) – 5 – Offered absolutely nothing in the way of energy, creativity, speed or shooting.

Conor Bradley (replaces Mac Allister, 60′) – 4 – Beaten twice in 10 minutes by the same player, first for a big chance and then for a goal.

Kostas Tsimikas (replaces Robertson, 74′) – 5 – Strange half position for him, a kind of central defender but sometimes also wide. Didn’t work.

Curtis Jones (for Konate, 74′) – 5 – First performance of the season, not much to see yet.

Unused substitutes: Kelleher, Gomez, Quansah, Endo

Arne Slot – 4

This was his first taste of the post-international malaise that Liverpool like to evoke and subject their fans to.

He didn’t seem to be a fan of it, as he gave the starting players 10 minutes after the break and then started preparing the troops for a triple substitution.

We haven’t seen much in the way of major tactical changes to Slot’s main plan, so this was a turnaround in that regard; a chop and change with Trent in midfield, then a double sub to move us to a back three… sort of. It was a mess, to be honest.

In short, the changes that didn’t work were the biggest problem. Slot spoke during the week about the need to rotate more at Anfield than he did at Feyenoord; games like this show why that’s so important – not just in a physical sense, but also to get better performances out of certain players.

Anyway, this time Slot got no reaction from his team on the selection, substitutions or team talks at half-time. It was the first time that something like that didn’t happen and it was also a bad time: at home, just before the Champions League starts against a team from the bottom half.

The honeymoon is over, now the realization of the task must sink in. Slot must do it right the first time.