Liverpool were not the better side on Sunday afternoon when they headed off to face a Nottingham Forest side in the midst of crisis in a season that has rather seemed non-stop crisis for the West Bridgford that are currently on their fourth (and maybe not their last) manager of the 2025-26 campaign.
The Reds’ relegation-threatened opponents (who are on their fourth manager of the season) had more shots, created more expected goals, and even managed to appear to have more well-drilled patterns of play—of
passing, pressing, and buildup. In the end, though, Liverpool managed to end up with all three points.
In the end, of course, that’s the point of the game and what matters most. Especially if you’re a Liverpool side who themselves have been at seemed on the verge of crisis for most of the season and are in a tough fight to finish in the Champions League places. The question, as always, is what comes next.
“We want to play our best football and I think at times we are doing that,” captain Virgil van Dijk reflected after everything was said and done in Sunday’s 1-0 victory. “Obviously we are still looking for improvements and we are not perfect, but we are human beings and want to do our best for the club.
“We want to perform at the absolute highest levels, and we need everyone to be at their best so that’s a process, but we keep going and now the focus is on the next one. It feels definitely nice to win here, it’s a difficult ground and it was a very poor first half from all of us with and without the ball.”
The silver lining is perhaps that for as bad as Liverpool were early, they did improve as the game went on, at least relative their early struggles. And of course in the end a win is a win is a win—which puts them level on points with fifth-place Manchester United, at least until they take on Everton today.
On paper, too, Liverpool have one of the easier schedules of the sides battling to finish in the Champions League places in a season where top five are all but guaranteed of that. And for that, they need more wins. And for that, they’ll need to improve on Sunday’s performance, eventually victory or not.
