LIVERPOOL VS. NOTTINGHAM FOREST
| Saturday, August 29th |
Premier League | Anfield
12:30PM BST/7:30AM EST
For the second week going, Liverpool face a team a bit tricky to predict at this point in the season: while we know about Oliver Glasner from his time at Crystal Palace, he is quite an adaptable manager and thus we can’t be 100% confident how he will approach an away match against Liverpool with this particular squad. Indeed, in his pre-match press conference for this one, Glasner said that the formation he will use will not
be settled until after the transfer window closes and the dust settles: there’s a high level of uncertainty until the personnel is settled. That said, that we have buckets of evidence of Glasner in the Premier League and the professionals at Liverpool will certainly have hypotheses and plans.
Once again the new-look Reds face a side that will look to hit them on counter attacks regardless of their specific structure, and thus the challenge will be mental preparedness more than anything.
In terms of squad availability, both Morgan Gibbs-White and Ryan Yates are available for this one; Gibbs-White has been a danger man for Forest at Anfield, either scoring or assisting in half of the last six games at Anfield, including one in the depressing 3-0 win for Forest last season. There was a danger of Gibbs-White being absent as missed the League Cup game midweek with a minor injury, but in his press conference Glasner confirmed his fitness for selection Saturday.
Forest have signed Liam Delap this week and he could debut for Forest at Anfield. Though he has not had a lot of time in training with Forest, he obviously comes in with Premier League experience and will want to hit the ground running.
Ibrahim Sangaré — who was a major highlight for Forest in the opening match — will be unavailable for this one, however, having picked up a minor calf injury in training this week. Nicolò Savona also remains sidelined.
Inexplicably, Liverpool are on two straight home losses against Nottingham Forest, with the league-winning joke of Arne Slot’s obsession with Forest becoming a bit less funny in the struggles of last season. Losing a third in a row against Forest at Anfield would be the kind of new record Andoni Iraola will be hoping to avoid. Though there has been a change in management at Forest, it remains pertinent that Forest won three of their last four away matches at the end of last season.
In further bad news when it comes to streaks is that Forest have the longest active away goals streak going (scoring in each of their last 10 league aways for 15 total goals) — not an active streak you want to see when Liverpool look at times meek and accommodating in defense, particularly against counter attacks.
Predicted Liverpool Lineup (4-2-3-1)
Alisson; Frimpong, Jacquet, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Gravenberch, Szoboszlai; Muñoz, Wirtz, Barcola; Isak
Given injuries and where we are in the season, we can expect a similar team to match week one as Liverpool look to develop a cohesive identity under their new coach. It has to be said that an opening two of Newcastle away to start and then the early kick-off for your home opener is not the easiest set of matches to start on, but Liverpool will need to prove themselves to be grown ups.
There’s hope that Alexander Isak might find a way to be more involved when removed from the context of his former home’s hostile atmosphere, but on the whole Liverpool will need to find a way to be more effective in attack. We can assume that the Reds will once again be afforded the lion’s share of the possession, and will need to develop more cohesiveness in attack as well as a cutting edge. The complete lack of quality chances from open play in the first match is truly worrying, particularly given Liverpool’s attacking talent.
With Hugo Ekitiké still out for a substantial recovery period and no new signings arriving early to be integrated, the limited attacking options are an issue. I don’t love young Rio Ngumoha playing out of position on the right, but should Iraola go for this option again the home match might be a kinder space for development in comparison to a tough away. Víctor Muñoz could start after coming on to win a late penalty, and Iraola does have the option of rotating Jeremie Frimpong into attack and playing on-loan Ronald Araújo at right back for a spell of the game.
We might also see a midfielder like Dominik Szoboszlai or Florian Wirtz shuffled around, though midfield depth is now very thin with the departure of Curtis Jones and no planned replacement. Trey Nyoni had a very promising pre-season, but is perhaps unlikely to start; as such, a formation that sees all senior midfielders take the pitch from kick-off would severely limit Iraola’s ability to change the game from the bench late on. Harvey Elliott is of course an option, but the manager preferring Lewis Koumas and others explicitly to Elliott means his odds of even making the squad for this one feel narrow.
In terms of injuries, Liverpool remain without the aforementioned Ekitiké as well as Conor Bradley, Giovanni Leoni, Federico Chiesa and Joe Gomez due to injury.
It’s worth underscoring that Liverpool largely beat themselves during the long stretches when the Reds were chasing the game against Newcastle on Sunday: Ryan Gravenberch giving up possession inexplicably in the opening minutes and no one being willing to take the player down on the second goal were both extremely frustrating, but from a coaching perspective you’d think these are supremely fixable. You understand Liverpool attacking aggressively in the opening minutes at St. James’ Park, but we can assume decision-making when taking risks will have been a central discussion in training over the week.
The Managers Have Their Say
Andoni Iraola [on Glasner]: “I think he has been very successful. Here, we know him from the Premier League, we’ve played against each other quite a lot. You can see straight away the shape, they don’t concede a lot of chances. The other day against Leeds it was a very tight game, not a lot of chances and Leeds won because they scored a free-kick in the 90th minute. But probably Forest even had more chances than Leeds until that moment. We will have to earn every chance. They don’t give you [anything] for free. You have to be very good on the ball, be patient sometimes because they defensively are very solid, [they] are very good. And after they have also very good players up front – like every Premier League team – and we have to control those situations, especially in the transitions because they also have good threats in the counter.”
Oliver Glasner: “If we want things to change, we have to change them. No-one will do it for us. And this is sometimes getting out of the comfort zone and accepting reality. Roll your sleeves up, head down and let’s go. This is the mentality we want to create. Roll your sleeves up, work hard every single day and then we will get better results.”
The Officials
Referee: Sam Barrott Assistants: Adam Nunn, Wade Smith Fourth Official: Tim Robinson VAR: Michael Oliver Assistant VAR: James Mainwaring
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