Salah and Jota cut down Forest
Liverpool 3 Nottingham Forest 2, 22nd April 2023.
Liverpool 3 Nottingham Forest 2, 22nd April 2023.
LIVERPOOL 3 (Jota 47 and 55, Salah 70)
NOTTINGHAM FOREST 2 (Williams 51, Gibbs-White 67)
With five goals across just 23 second half minutes, the story of the game kind of writes itself but the template of the game entire was set in the first 45 minutes entirely dominated by a 24 year old Liverpudlian by the name of Trent Alexander-Arnold, and two words that twisted through footballing logic and the vernacular that accompanies this great game becomes just one, set-piece. In a first half low on quality, it was high on stop/start set-pieces and Alexander-Arnold, largely free of his defensive responsibilities in a roving midfield role, was seemingly at the heart of every free-kick and corner for the Reds. The young Liverpudlian was his team’s guiding light in a poor first half of Attack versus Defence as an unchanged Liverpool from their 6–1 midweek mauling of Leeds United probed and pushed a struggling Nottingham Forest staring relegation in the face with only one point from their last five games, deeper and deeper into their defensive shell as he sprayed passes gloriously all around the fields of Anfield Road.
Forest, in their retro pleasing “Away” strip of yellow and blue, were comfortable in deep defence with all ten outfield players constantly behind the ball and aside from the game’s first shot on target from Morgan Gibbs-White on 17 minutes, posed no further attacking threat in a first half entirely dominated by Alexander-Arnold and his freedom of expression in open play and from the numerous corners and free-kicks that the Reds had earned with their attacking pressure if ultimately, coming up empty. It was Alexander-Arnold’s free-kick on 26 minutes that saw a bullet header from Virgil van Dijk that forced Keylor Navas into his first meaningful action of the afternoon and a brilliant tip over save from near point-blank range before 4 minutes later on the half hour it was Alexander-Arnold once more with another corner that Cody Gakpo squeezed through a host of bodies only to see ex Red Nico Williams clear from the Nottingham Forest goal line. 7 minutes before the break, Alexander-Arnold’s curling free-kick defeated the Forest defence for Diogo Jota to head home at the far post but inexplicably, the Portuguese striker headed into the side netting when arguably he could and should have scored.
The Reds had dominated a first half but not convincingly so, and their visitors from Nottingham were more than happy to depart for the half-time break level at 0–0.
But the template had been set and just 2 minutes into the second period of play came the first of 5 goals in just 23 playing minutes, all of which came from set-pieces, nearly all were criminally defended by both teams and, you’ll be unsurprised to learn, that gifted 24 year old Liverpudlian was yet again at the heart of many of them for his team of Reds who held a 1–0 advantage, a 2–1 lead and were still dependent upon a record equalling Egyptian King to ensure all 3 valuable Premier League points.
First it was Alexander-Arnold’s corner on 47 minutes that Forest failed to clear before Fabinho headed the loose ball square across the face of their goal for Diogo Jota to head home on the goal line. The Reds lead lasted barely 4 minutes before they conceded an equaliser from a Nottingham Forest throw-in in their own half. Yes, their own half! With virtually the entire gaggle of outfield players condensed on the near side touchline for a long defensive throw-in from the visitors, the home team Reds failed to defend an innocuous bouncing ball back into play that was quickly swept to a roaming Nico Williams all on his own on the far side of the pitch. Bearing down on Alisson Becker’s goal, his shot took a wicked deflection from Andy Robertson as he tried desperately to cover the gaping hole in his team’s defence, and the ball ricocheted passed a helpless Becker in the Reds goal.
But continuing the template once more, Forest were level for just 4 minutes before, in the beautiful football vernacular, “switching off” for a simple Andy Robertson free-kick and the entire visiting defence simply stood and watched as first Jota expertly controlled the free-kick with his chest before a brilliant thigh control and left footed volley left Keylor Navas grasping in vain for the ball flashing passed him. The Reds held a comfortable 2–1 lead for 12 minutes before conceding once more and to lose a goal to a throw-in once is borderline criminal, what would be the description for conceding a second? Scandalous? Inept? Shocking? However you wish to describe it, yet another set-piece and yet another long throw-in was partly cleared to the edge of the penalty area before the highly impressive as ever Morgan Gibbs-White unleashed a volley that deflected gently off both Ibrahima Konaté and Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Forest were level once more.
Parity would last just 3 minutes before yet another Trent Alexander-Arnold free-kick was brilliantly swept home by Mo Salah after freeing himself from the grabbing hands of Forest midfielder Remo Freuler, and as the adored Egyptian King leapt high in front of the massed ranks of his sporting disciples on The Kop two things were abundantly clear (1) his winning smile had returned once more and (2) he’d joined Liverpool’s very own God, Robbie Fowler, as the Reds joint 6th all time record goal scorer with 183, and now needs just 4 more to usurp another legend, Steven Gerrard, to be in 5th place all on his Godlike own.
I fear for Nottingham Forest and do not want to see them relegated and not just because of their incredible conduct today with the laying of wreaths at the Hillsborough Memorial, their banners of support and their brilliant joining in at the 6th minute as a mark of respect for 97 souls who simply went to a game of football in Sheffield 34 years ago. I also like the cut of the jib of their manager Steve Cooper (ex Liverpool Academy and Junior coach for 5 years), for the impressive strides being made by ex Liverpool Reds Nico Williams and especially the nagging pest that is Taiwo Awoniyi. The Nigerian striker in particular was fantastic in a second half that he became more and more of a nuisance and if for a mere few inches could have equalised the game at 3–3 if his brilliant overhead kick had been a little lower on 73 minutes.
But with just 1 point from their last 18 available, they are falling like a stone and with 6 Premier League games to go have to find at least 2 if not 3 wins to prevent their stone tumbling back into The Championship.
On the other side of the Premier League ball, Liverpool are back up to 7th with 8 points from their last 15 available and with 7 games to go, at the time of writing, are 6 points away from the much coveted 4th place and qualification for the mega money of next season’s Champions League. Following their haul of just a single point from their “defining” week against Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, it’s still an incredibly tall order to squeak into 4th but hope springs eternal, and with 21 Premier League points still to play for, any and everything is still possible in their “Sword of Damocles” season.
Time will tell.
It always does.
Afterword from The Boss, Jürgen Klopp, courtesy of www.liverpoolfc.com
“…the throw-ins created a proper mess for us. You can prepare a lot in football — and this game was now the preparation for us for the future — but for this kind of thing, obviously we were not prepared well enough. We knew about the threat: when Niakhate has the ball and throws it into the box. The first ball we could have defended better, I think Ibou was a bit too much in a fight with whoever was around him, but how we deal with the second, third and fourth ball was not even close to being good enough because they won all of them and put it always back into the area and that, in the end, caused massive problems. I think especially the second goal they scored… as a player who is not directly involved, you need to read the situation better because everybody is there, there is one who fights for the ball and all the rest has to pick up where is the next potential threat. There, that was not good enough. We scored our goals as well from set-pieces, different set-pieces so, strange game”.
“But the most important thing in football is obviously our results and fighting through this situation today and getting three points, you just have to look in the dressing room… the boys are not silly — they know that we were not perfect — but they are really happy about that. It’s three super-important points. I told the boys at half-time, we had these kind of games hundreds of times where it’s really tough to get through and stuff like this. You have to be patient, you have to stay positive, you have to go for the moment. Ask if anybody would be happy if we win the game 1–0, of course everybody would. So that means we fight and work for this one moment where we can decide it. And in the end, we needed three — but that’s fine. So yes, I think things changed but to show consistently we have to keep going and it will be a really tough game again against West Ham. They fight for everything, so we have to be ready for that”.
Thanks for reading. There is a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
Gifts galore at Elland Road as Reds hit Leeds for six
Leeds United 1 Liverpool 6, 17th April 2023.medium.com
Honours even in Anfield battle of wills
Liverpool 2 Arsenal 2, 9th April 2023.medium.com
Reds grab a fortunate point from a miserable game at the Bridge
Chelsea 0 Liverpool 0, 4th April 2023.medium.com