Liverpool 0-3 Nottingham Forest: Match Review
Liverpool prepare to face PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League at Anfield.
Arne Slot will again have depleted options as Liverpool look to turn around their season against PSV Eindhoven.
The Reds head coach has come under pressure given the insipid Premier League form of six defeats in seven games following a 3-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest. Any hopes of defending the title have ended before December, with Liverpool 11 points behind Arsenal in the table.
Liverpool may take solace that they turn their attention to the Champions League, a competition they have not struggled in so far after winning three of their four opening matches. They will head into the PSV fixture at Anfield on Wednesday night as heavy favourites but Slot’s right-back predicament remains.
Both Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong are still injured. In addition, Florian Wirtz did not train so he looks set to be absent for successive matches. Giovanni Leoni is unavailable for the rest of the campaign after rupturing his ACL, while youngsters Stefan Bajcetic and Jayden Danns are sidelined because of respective hamstring problems.
Slot is highly unlikely to name a full complement of substitutes against PSV. Despite UEFA allowing 12 players to be on the bench, Liverpool have a paucity of players to select from And two youngsters who were spotted in training to supplement the numbers cannot help make up the numbers.
Pair cannot play
James Norris was also spotted in Tuesday’s session at the AXA Training Centre. He has recently returned from a loan spell at League of Ireland side Shelbourne, where he made 45 appearances. The left-back also cannot feature against PSV. Norris played in four Champions League qualifying matches for Shelbourne in July.
However, Liverpool can still register Kaide Gordon, who also trained, in their List B set-up as he is under the age of 21.
‘Ridiculous, almost’
Liverpool’s dire run of results means that questions have started to be asked of Slot. After taking over as head coach from Jurgen Klopp, the Reds comfortably won the Premier League title last season yet their issues have been stark this campaign. Already, Liverpool have conceded 20 league goals and nine from set-pieces in all competitions.
Slot admitted that the results and vulnerabilities are ‘ridiculous’ for a club like Liverpool. He said at his pre-match press conference: “Ridiculous, almost. Something I didn't expect to be in, not at any club I worked at let alone if you manager of Liverpool. That is unbelievable. If you can find an excuse you will never find enough excuses to make you perform like this. It is unexpected for the club, for me, for everyone, but we are also working at a club that if you ever needed to face this maybe this is the best club to face it because the harder it gets at a club like this more we are together, the more we are trying to the things Liverpool usually achieves.
“Conceding far more goals than last season; that is general in terms of conceding. Last season we conceded zero set-pieces up to now, now we have conceded nine. The amount of goals we have conceded and the amount of goals coming from set-pieces is, again, close to ridiculous for a club like us. Of course there are probably more details that are different but the biggest one is the goals we concede because from open play we are still able to generate enough chances for us to get a result. But after half-an-hour the first time you defend you score a goal that is not what we did last season and not of our standards.”
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