Ex Red Awoniyi cuts down a ragged and out of sorts Liverpool
Nottingham Forest 1 Liverpool 0, 22nd October 2022.
Nottingham Forest 1 Liverpool 0, 22nd October 2022.
It’s been a long 23 years since Nottingham Forest last hosted the Reds at their famed City Ground home beside the river Trent, and whereas they relied upon a last minute equalising goal on that April day in 1999 from their mercurial and infuriating striker Pierre van Hooijdonk, today they deservedly claimed all 3 Premier League points via Nigerian striker and ex Liverpool Red, Taiwo Awoniyi. The tall, athletic if a little cumbersome striker resolutely refused to celebrate his ultimately winning goal on 55 minutes as a mark of respect for the Merseyside club who signed him as a fresh faced 18 year old and he’d admit after the game that saw his goal being the difference between the two teams as an “emotional” moment for him and perhaps a great stride forward for a team who climbed off the bottom of the league with this fully deserved victory.
28,374 were in attendance the last time these two European Cup winning dynasties of English football clashed in the country’s premier football league, with a Reds team containing an era defining rabble captained by Paul Ince and an attacking thrust of Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Patrik Berger never really given the defensive assurance from the likes of David James in goal or Rigobert Song and Dominic Matteo in front of him. A young Steven Gerrard lay in wait on the substitutes bench that day, but this Gerard Houllier managed team was still a long way from the redesigned team that would win a treble of trophies just over a year later.
Today, 29,245 crammed into Forest’s riverside home with the majority returning home in footballing ecstasy. Make no mistake, Nottingham Forest deserved what they achieved today: a hard working, tough to break down, resilient and, as the game opened up in the second half, lightning quick breaks which could and should have extended their precious 1–0 lead. Midfielder Cheikhou Kouyate was outstanding and a visitors “Man of the Match” award from me but he was assisted throughout the game by his captain Ryan Yates and the central defensive duo of Steve Cook and Scott McKenna in front of Dean Henderson in a Nottingham Forest goal rarely threatened but when it was, Henderson was equal to everything thrown at him. Quixotically, the home team’s major pre-game threats of Jesse Lingard and Morgan Gibbs-White were kept largely and anonymously quiet throughout, but ultimately they weren’t needed as a much changed and incredibly unrecognisable Liverpool team floundered limply to defeat.
Reds Manager Jurgen Klopp was forced into five changes from Wednesday’s 1–0 victory over West Ham and either through illness, injury or with an eye on the crucial midweek Champions League game in Amsterdam against Ajax, his changes rippled through the lines and the spine of his team today. Returning in defence came Andy Robertson and James Milner (who was excellent again as an emergency right back and who saved his team going 2–0 down immediately after the game’s opening goal with an outstanding blocked tackle) and with a slight injury to Darwin Nunez, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah led the attacking line, albeit ghostly anonymously all game. The Reds midfield today saw the biggest of changes with Curtis Jones and Fabio Carvalho joining Brazilian Fabinho and first half stand out performer Harvey Elliott in the centre of a congested field of play that Nottingham Forest brilliantly “overloaded” with eager bodies snapping at the heels of the Liverpool midfield quartet and never giving them any room whatsoever to break down or break open play.
In an even first half devoid of real goal scoring chances or meaningful action, Harvey Elliott (in combination with his captain James Milner) was the Reds most promising threat and “pivot” around which to play, but even the 19 year old faded as the second half progressed and Forest, with the lead, threatened to score more. Quixotically again, the visiting Reds (in their alternative silver/white change kit) came closest to scoring with Elliott denied at the near post with a smart save from Dean Henderson in the Forest goal and he’d deny both Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk with fantastic saves from their goal bound headers as the game approached its denouement. The save from Virgil van Dijk on 93 minutes, a sprawling one handed effort, was not only incredible but a game and result defining one, and one which saw the on loan goalkeeper from Manchester United leaping into the ecstatic home fans behind his goal on the referee’s final whistle.
The Reds of Liverpool were disjointed, sluggish and ridiculously profligate with the ball they usually treasure. The Reds of Nottingham Forest were resolute, compact and more than deserving of their victory.
It’s back to the fabled and cliched “drawing board” for Liverpool ahead of their crucial clash with Ajax in the Champions League and I’d be stunned if they don’t secure the result in Amsterdam that secures their passage into the knock-out stages of Europe’s premier competition with a game to spare.
It’ll be a different team, game and result come Wednesday in the Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam but regardless of my lame and immediate future optimism, the Reds “Sword of Damocles season” will continue to be a bumpy one.
See you Wednesday.
Thanks for reading. My Liverpool FC archives contain a wealth of articles past, present and often personal, or you can find the three most recently published articles linked below:
Nunez goal enough to see off powder puff Hammers at Anfield
Liverpool 1 West Ham United 0, 19th October 2022.medium.com
Five star Reds stretch their lead at the top of the 1st Division
Retro Series Vol 23: Manchester City 0 Liverpool 5, 10th April 1982medium.com
Cancelo cancelled as City capitulate at a white hot Anfield
Liverpool 1 Manchester City 0, 16th October 2022medium.com