Premier League: How Nottingham Forest exposed Liverpool tactically

Forest opened the scoring, taking advantage of Liverpool’s poor form from set-pieces this season.

Excluding penalties, Slott’s side have conceded nine league goals from set-pieces this season – the same number they conceded throughout the whole of last season.

For the first goal, Liverpool had six players in the six-yard box including goalkeeper Alisson, while the visitors cleverly placed only two there.

One of these players put light pressure on Alisson, while their other player entered into a duel with Virgil van Dijk, which hindered his movement.

The real battle took place in the middle of the penalty area where Forest and Liverpool set up a 4v4 situation with the Liverpool quartet of Cody Jacobo, Alexis McAllister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah.

Early in the routine, Salah pointed to McAllister and asked the Argentine to pick out one of Forest’s most dangerous players, Murillo.

Mac Allister was unable to do this because he was preoccupied with the player he was appointed to mark. As a result, he remained attached to his player throughout the corner meaning that Murillo was a backup player.

Szoboszlai was tasked with marking Morgan Gibbs-White, but decided against tracking him to the near post – instead trying to pick out a free Murillo at the last minute.