Liverpool earned a 1-0 victory over Nottingham Forest and Dominik Szoboszlai helped engineer the winning goal.
Jamie Carragher hailed the ‘arrogance’ that Dominik Szoboszlai showed to engineer Liverpool’s match-winner against Nottingham Forest.
The Reds required a 97th-minute goal from Alexis Mac Allister to earn a 1-0 smash-and-grab victory at the City Ground. It appeared that Liverpool were going to be unable to take advantage of Chelsea’s slip-up against Burnley in the race for a Premier League top-five finish. Arne Slot’s side were well below their best against relegation-threatened Forest, with their first-half performance abject.
But the visitors limited Forest to a dearth of goalscoring chances throughout the game. In the 89th minute, Alexis Mac Allister had a goal disallowed for handball when he charged down Forest defender Ola Aina’s cross.
Liverpool did not let that dispirit them, though, and found a way to break the deadlock. In the seventh minute of injury time, Szoboszlai whipped in a teasing delivery to pick out captain Virgil van Dijk. The Reds captain’s header was saved by goalkeeper Stefan Ortega but Mac Allister was first to react to the loose ball and found the back of the net - sending the travelling supporters into raptures.
It was Szoboszlai’s latest invaluable contribution, having emerged as Liverpool’s talisman this season. Speaking on Sky Sports, former Kop defender Carragher said: “The ball comes to Szoboszlai and the thing I love is the football arrogance of it. The quality is absolutely fantastic and Virgil van Dijk does brilliantly because he keeps the ball alive.
“When I talk about football arrogance with Szoboszlai, when the ball comes to him, it's easy to [pass sideways]. Maybe they are the right passes. I think last season or the year before, he passes but now he's got the arrogance of: 'I'm the best player in this team. I'm one of the best players in the Premier League and European football and I'm going to make something happen'.
“So he decides to almost take on his man when he's got easy passes; that comes from confidence, arrogance. He gets half-a-yard then puts it in. For me, Virgil van Dijk is trying to keep it alive, and credit to Mac Allister. He had a really poor game, Mac Allister, along with a lot of Liverpool players but he gets the winning goal.”
Szoboszlai started his latest game as a makeshift right-back, with Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley injured. The Hungary international was moved into midfield midway through the first half, with Curtis Jones - who was a late replacement for the injured Florian Wirtz - moving to defence.
Carragher believes that Liverpool head coach Slot’s decision to move Mac Allister into a more advanced role deserved credit. “He brought Curtis Jones in late and it can't have been easy for him, he had a really poor first half,” added Carragher. “He made that change with Curtis Jones coming into right-back and Dominik Szoboszlai into midfield. But they didn't change positions, with Curtis Jones almost playing the Wirtz role.
“When they changed positions, Szoboszlai went into Mac Allister's role and Mac Allister went higher up the pitch. They are set-pieces but the fact he was in maybe a more advanced role and that is credit to the manager, who made great substitutions.”
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