Liverpool easily defeated Nottingham Forest 3-0 at home, despite pregame concerns over Luis Diaz’s off-the-field situation.
Liverpool 3-0 Nottingham Forest
Goals: Salah 77′, Nunez 35′, and Jota 31′.
Luis Diaz is thinking as Anfield offers assistance.
For the many people inside Anfield and those watching from a distance, including many who are not definitely Liverpool supporters, the pre-game atmosphere would have been a true roller coaster.
In an early-morning statement, the Reds mentioned that Diaz was experiencing intense anxiety because his parents had been abducted in Colombia.
Even though his mother was reportedly saved in later accounts, it is hard to imagine how he could still be thinking that way.
Following the Reds’ first goal of the match, Diaz’s shirt was dutifully hoisted up by Diogo Jota, as the players instinctively thought about their team-mate during an extremely trying period.
Before the game began, there was a minute of silence and celebration honouring two legends from opposing teams: Sir Bobby Charlton, the World Cup winner and hero of Manchester United, who went away last weekend, and Bill Kenwright, the chairman of Everton, who passed away earlier this week.
Anfield respected them both.
In response, there was further cheering and a flag was raised in honour of Reds supporter Paul McHugh, who sadly passed away during the most recent Merseyside derby, in the 37th minute.
In addition, before to the game, a group of supporters distributed Palestine flags to anyone wishing to demonstrate their support for the country, even though the Premier League forbade the flying of flags from either that country or Israel because of the continuing Israeli-Hamas conflict.
In spite of this, Liverpool and the Premier League frequently instructed supporters not to fly the banners.
Football at Anfield should never be just about the ball.
Through the middle, Darwin
Prior to the circumstances involving Diaz’s parents, he most likely would have started at centre forward alongside Darwin Nunez or Diogo Jota on the left.
We can possibly interpret the Uruguayan’s middle-of-the-road nod as coming from Jurgen Klopp’s pre-game selection, given that they both got off to starts.
The Uruguayan had the finest chances of the first half, putting in a header that went over the bar and a rocket from a tight angle that was saved after a defensive blunder.
And it was certainly the Uruguayan who made the difference: first his run down the channel and drilled shot was parried by Matt Turner, straight to Jota who tapped in, then it was Nunez again who attacked the near post to score the second soon after.
He’s in great form right now and received another ovation when subbed late on.
All-out attack!
With this lineup, we witnessed this team’s characteristics from the start of the game until the half: possession dominance, a lot of offensive vigour, goal threat from all angles, and a strong desire to win games.
Even if Liverpool is still far from flawless, this kind of play is something to be cherished right now, especially considering how boring and uninteresting the majority of last season’s play was.
With two aggressive midfielders and a creative No. 6, we were always pressing high to recover the ball, had creative passing options, and everyone was willing to take a shot when it was in a decent location.
Dominik Szoboszlai, Nunez, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Jota all went for goal in a relentless stretch with desire to demolish, and at moments Turner was up against an onslaught.
That was the aggregate of 12 first-half shots and 74% of the possession.
It’s not a lineup or strategy that works well against every kind of opponent or style of play.
However, at home against most Premier League teams? Simply put, Liverpool is superior to most because they are stronger, more technically adept, and have a superb setup.
When we can simply overwhelm teams with such attacking possibilities, problems with deep blocks and breaking them down might be history—as long as the defence stays focused and reacts quickly to recoveries, of course.
The next stage will be to turn that mindset into a ninety-minute session, with a far more passive second half.
The Szobo show continues
Dominik Szoboszlai was once again superior to the rest versus Forest, proving once again that he has been the greatest player on the pitch most of the time this season when wearing a red shirt.
The No. 8 had a number of assists, first for Nunez and then for Mohamed Salah’s goal in the dying moments due to strange defensive play by the visitors, but his overall play and ability to move from danger and power into space was what really set him apart.
Early in the season, Szoboszlai’s partnership with Salah has consistently been an impressive aspect of the Reds’ style. He also has tremendous play-changing, dribbling, and drawing abilities, which he uses to pull defenders before moving into space for a teammate.
If Harvey Elliott had been more accurate with his first touch after entering the game, he may have had a hat-trick of assists.
Midweek matters and three off the top
Win in yet another game. Although we really wouldn’t have anticipated anything different in this situation, the Reds nevertheless had to perform, and they did so admirably.
Since that last-minute loss at Spurs, the team has already recorded four wins and a draw. This is a fantastic return, and there is every reason to believe that it will continue given the remaining games leading up to the international break, which starts with a midweek matchup against Bournemouth in the cup.
It’s likely that several of these players will appear in the match again, either as substitutes or starts.
However, there’s also the opportunity to play Curtis Jones, who has now completed his domestic sentence, as well as our available centre backs for rotation, Cody Gakpo, who is returning from injury.
This season, Klopp and the coaches have done a respectable job of rotating cup teams while maintaining a high level of competition among players who are capable of playing for the first team.
Although attack and possibly left-back appear a touch sparse right now for various reasons, there is still enough talent there to win games.
While we wait, we quietly and steadily stay in the hunt for the top spot, trailing the league leaders by just three points and appearing very much in contention.