The nightmare resumes for Liverpool, as the return of Premier League action served up stark evidence that a team entirely disconnected needs to start getting ugly or risk even more ridicule.
Liverpool 0-3 Nottingham Forest
Premier League (12) | Anfield
November 22, 2025
Goals: Murillo 33′, Savona 46′, Gibbs-White 78′
1. VAR circus needs to end
Remember those sepia-tinged pre-VAR days? They were full of argument and frustration, weren’t they? One week the linesman would get it all wrong and your team would either concede from a howler of a decision, or benefit. Afterwards the studio pundits would take great delight in drawing over-exaggerated lines to highlight just how offside the offending individual was, despite the run being missed and the goal being allowed to stand.
And now, well since the introduction of VAR and its application for several years, everything runs pretty much crystal clear, with all issues dealt with correctly and promptly. Right? Of course not.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, November 22, 2025: Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and goalkeeper Alisson Becker speak to referee Andrew Madley about a potential obstruction during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
The VAR circus is running out of excuses. The technology was brought in to offer visual and data-led assistance to officials in real time, in order to quickly achieve the correct decision on the field as soon as possible with minimal hinderance to the play. And yet it simply does not happen.
Either side of the international break Liverpool have fallen foul to exactly the same disputed passage of play and come off worse both times, despite being on both sides of the arguments. Make it make sense.
Against Manchester City Virgil van Dijk‘s crucial, equalising header was chalked off after Andy Robertson was deemed to have floated through the line of vision of the goalkeeper. Today, Murillo fizzes the opener into the bottom corner despite Dan Ndoye moving across the eye line of Alisson. One was disallowed, the other was a goal. Both the same situation, yet interpreted differently. This level of human assessment is not what VAR was brought in for. It’s not what we, the fans, were promised. It is rapidly becoming unscrupulous and can’t be seen as anything else other than a failing product.
2. Set piece embarrassment continues
Taking the VAR calamity show out of consideration for a moment, there is no getting away from the black and white fact that Liverpool conceded a poor set-piece goal yet again. It’s getting mind-numbing.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, November 22, 2025: Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister reacts to his side conceeding the second goal during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
There is a lot more that goes into set-piece construction (both defending and attacking) than most of us give credit for. At the elite level it’s highly nuanced, hence most Premier League teams employing bespoke set-piece coaches. But Liverpool know this, and for most of the past decade they have capitalised well upon such things. So to see questionable, error-strewn goals rolling in on a weekly basis is now becoming rather exasperating.
The simple misjudgment of a Van Dijk header was enough for Liverpool to freeze, for the ball to find the feet of Murrilo, and a lack of immediate response before the centre-back – albeit a highly skilled Brazilian one – being allowed to slot into the bottom corner with the finesse of a striker. The margins are fine, and it’s going to cost the Reds more and more, the longer this continues.
3. Slot needs to get ugly
Just prior to the recent international break Jamie Carragher curated a segment in his Sky Sports analysis on Liverpool’s failings against the heavily stacked, low-block teams. He made the point that even the teams amassing majority points were shifting hard left, back to the tactics of old; imposing players, direct passing, huge emphasis on shutting down passing lanes and choking matches to death. He was right.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, November 22, 2025: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
The league always has to follow some form of cat and mouse game, when one thing starts to work for a side, others begin to follow. It’s why Arsenal are excelling and nudging past robust and resolute opponents, whereas this new-look Liverpool side, still attempting to gel, are falling way short.
Enough weeks have passed now for Arne Slot and his talented coaching staff to have determined where matches can be won and lost against the most mentally taxing of teams. A Sean Dyche side will always come under that title, and today the Reds couldn’t cope.
It’s all fine and well having some of the best players in the division, and in world football, but if points are being squandered on a weekly basis it makes little sense. Liverpool have a shiny new Ferrari with engine issues, while the rest of the Premier League are competing in a filthy rally race, all stop-start and push and shove. Somebody needs to bring Slot up to speed before it’s too late.
4. Salah Szobo axis needs to remain
The Egyptian King was a rare bright spark today, in what was a shameful afternoon for Liverpool. The 33-year-old had the bit between his teeth again and looked sharp. Not as much running down blind alleys and losing possession, but clever runs and pulling off the last man to get a shot out of his feet.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, November 22, 2025: Liverpool's Mohamed Salah reacts to conceding the third goal during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Salah looked much better, and it feels like this is in large part down to Dominik Szoboszlai. The Egyptian talisman thrives off solid understanding and a reliable partnership, it’s why he flourished with Trent Alexander-Arnold for so many seasons.
In Szoboszlai, Salah has someone whose football IQ is similar to his own, and who he automatically knows has a passing range with which to find him at the click of a finger. Slot is clearly privy to this, and today we saw the manager deploy Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones in an interchangeable pivot; The Hungarian at full-back to support Salah down the flank, while also cutting inside and filling in the inside channel while Jones quickly reverts to right back.
It’s a system which feels likely to keep Salah very comfortable, but it does beg the question of whether Liverpool will simply revert to being over reliant on their No.11 again. Today Salah looked promising, but still couldn’t make the difference. It feels like his close proximity to Szoboszlai must be maintained, though it still has to exist in harmony with the rest of the team.
5. Liverpool are locked in layers and Isak is lost at sea
It’s beyond frustrating when this group of seriously talented footballers all go away with their respective national teams, turn in blinding performances, and then return to Anfield like lost souls who hardly know each other.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Sunday, October 19, 2025: Liverpool's Alexander Isak walks past head coach Arne Slot after being substituted during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Manchester United FC at Anfield. Man Utd won 2-1. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
This was one of the most fragmented offerings in recent times. Bit by bit and phase by phase, Liverpool appeared locked in small confines. The defence, midfield and attacking lines all operated in individual ranks and the result catastrophically saw Liverpool get hammered, at home, by a bang average team.
Forest’s xG sat at 1.4 yet they could’ve left Anfield with a 4-0 win, no bother at all. It’s a damning indictment of where things currently sit.
If you think back to the best Liverpool teams of (very recent) years, there is one common function seen time and time again; the team ebbs and flows as one unit.
Jurgen Klopp‘s Liverpool powered out from the back, with solid centre halves linking up with the midfield engine room. Marauding full-backs then ribboned everything together with the interchanging front line and the whole team pressed, pushed and tracked together, pulsing as one and winning football games relentlessly.
It’s not that this team can’t do so, they managed more than adequately last season en route to becoming champions at a canter, but now the frost has set in. The defence looks vulnerable and disconnected from the greater machine, the midfield is creating gaps rather than plugging them and the attacking line looks bereft of ideas despite seeming menacing on the wings.
The man coming off worst of all in all this is Alexander Isak. Laden with pressure after becoming the most expensive player in Premier League history, Isak is becoming all too often starved of possession and service. Just the 14 touches today, giving absolutely zero boost to his confidence levels after a hindered start to the campaign.
In Isak Liverpool have one of, if not the, best finisher in European football. And yet, with a team unable to connect as one, the £125m man is looking like a very costly passenger. It has to change.