No. 9 dilemma & how many moves are too many? – 5 talking points from Forest 1-1 Liverpool – Liverpool FC

There are only so many times you can be satisfied with a draw in a title challenge and it might be the last of those for Liverpool, who had to come from behind at Nottingham Forest.

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Liverpool

Premier League (20) | Urban land
14 January 2025

Goal: Wood 8′; Jota 66′

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1. Too many draws can cost you a title

Arne Slot spoke about Nottingham Forest for weeks after the 1-0 defeat at Anfield in September.

It’s almost as if he knew how much of an aberration it would be from the rest of Liverpool’s season.

Going into the second leg against Forest at the City Ground, their meeting at Anfield remained Castle’s only league defeat as Liverpool manager.

The manager, his staff and players will surely have done everything they could to train this opponent ahead of this game, but Forest once again proved difficult to beat.

You can see why this team is second in the league as they are hard to break down but also have multiple routes to goal on the counter.

At the end of two league games against Forest, Liverpool have scored just once and to secure the title they will now need to go on a similar run to the one they had after the last time they played them. They cannot afford too many more occasions to be satisfied with a point.

As for Forest, they are really good and played their part in what was a fantastic top-of-the-table clash.

2. The wrong choice of striker

According to the statistics, the best chance of the first half for Liverpool was Dominik Szoboszlai’s header from Cody Gakpo’s cross, but in reality it was far from an easy chance.

Since this kind of data is based on shots, they can ignore some of the best chances a team has when moves don’t result in a shot.

This was the case when Luis Diaz found himself running on Forest’s back line and a simple pass to the right would have given Gakpo a chance.

Given his form you would have bet Gakpo to score, but instead Diaz confused the pass and let Murillo intercept.

Diaz’s hold-up play was poor throughout and with a more natural striker on the bench in Diogo Jota and the in-form Gakpo, also capable of switching to the centre, was the hour he played with Diaz as the central striker, waste of time.

It’s not necessarily Diaz’s (a winger) fault either, and he has shown flashes of good play in the position in the past, but there were few glimpses of that against Forest.

3. Telling the difference at first touch

There was probably a case for Liverpool to make some substitutions at half-time after some poor displays across the pitch.

As mentioned above, they seemed to lack an experienced striker in particular, so it was no surprise to see Jota in the second half.

It was a surprise that Slot waited until the 65th minute, but the substitutions he made made an immediate impression.

Kostas Tsimikas joined Jota in a double sub which saw Robertson and unusually Ibrahima Konate came off as Liverpool adjusted their roles with Gravenberch dropping in at centre-back when needed.

Both substitutes immediately combined in a rare clinical moment for Liverpool in this game.

Tsimikas’ first touch was a corner and Jota’s first touch was to head that corner into the goal.

It was supposed to be the only moment, but Jota’s liveliness up front and eye for a shot showed he should have come earlier.

4. Tuesday’s title talk

It’s all happened, or not happened, during these midweek fixtures for the teams at the top of the Premier League table.

Man City conceded two late goals at Brentford to drop two points and Chelsea needed a late goal from Reece James to salvage just one point at home to Bournemouth.

Nobody seems to want to mount a proper title challenge and at some point we might have to say Forest have the best shot at it.

Arsenal visit Tottenham tomorrow and have the chance to take Liverpool’s lead.

The North London Reds could have been the happiest team in the Premier League after Tuesday’s dramatic draws.

5. The window open: need for new arrivals?

It’s always tempting to look to the transfer market as a solution when a team isn’t winning regularly when the window is open.

A good way to gauge how likely a team is to make signings in the transfer window is to look at the bench.

Even with Darwin Nunez suspended, there were no players on the Liverpool bench who would easily be left out to make way for someone else.

Jarell Quansah might miss out if Joe Gomez was available, but apart from that, Liverpool have a bench of senior players who can all play a role and who Slot will not want to leave out of the squad entirely.

New arrivals are not likely unless someone is sold. It’s probably more a case of making deals to improve the overall quality of the team by selling and then buying, rather than adding to the existing package.

The obvious area to do this might be in the forward role.

Slot has worked well with the existing squad and even his one signing so far, Federico Chiesa, has not been needed, so this is likely to be a selective window rather than one that produces a spend.