Forest's victory here in the prior year seemed an anomaly in an usually dominant English top division home record for the Merseyside club. A second successive win in the current campaign, a far more convincing triumph under the Forest boss, was a clear sign of the challenges afflicting the declining title holders.
The visitors' exemplary display
Forest were exemplary as they recorded their most significant triumph at Liverpool's home. Strikes from the Brazilian, superb at both ends of the pitch, Savona and the superb Gibbs-White inspired a well-earned win for a team that also secured a maid clean sheet in twenty top-flight matches.
The home side's struggles
Liverpool, on the other hand, were a chaotic as they endured an 8th loss in 11 fixtures to fall into the bottom half of the standings. Weak at set pieces, repeatedly, impotent in offense, consistently, with the striker withdrawn after sixty-eight uninfluential moments, and defensively weak, they failed in all departments to succumb to a consecutive three-nil reverse.
Opening pressure missing reward
For half an hour the home side held the initiative, the occasional break from Morgan Gibbs-White aside, but the failure to capitalize on opportunities into the tangible reward of finishes cost them dearly. Mac Allister was given an initial opening from the forward's drive into the area only for the Forest player to deliver a excellent line save with his forehead. He had a second shot blocked moments later while impressive footwork from Mohamed Salah set up another close-range chance for Kerkez. A Forest defender just succeeded to put off the full-back into firing over.
Set-play frailty strikes repeatedly
The manager has often criticized the team's weakness to fast breaks and dead balls in the current campaign. This provided further evidence for complaint when Forest took the lead through a mix of the two.
Sean Dyche was aghast after Jesus was unable to find Nicolás Domínguez in space on the fast attack and allowed Konaté a chance to intercept. The ensuing corner caused ecstatic moments in the away team's area, however, when Elliot Anderson's delivery glanced off Virgil van Dijk to the goalscorer and the centre-half fired an irresistible strike from inside the box into the back of the net. There were echoes of the defender's chalked-off strike against Manchester City in the Forest's first goal with Ndoye positioned in an illegal position in front of Anfield's fit-again goalkeeper the goalie.
VAR calls and debate
Unsurprisingly, the Van Dijk was swift to highlight the similarities to the official, the ref. But unlike the full-back at the City's ground, Ndoye made no apparent gesture in front of Alisson and the strike was given. Officials clarified: "The referee's call of valid strike was examined and confirmed by the assistant – with it judged that the player was not in the sightline of the goalkeeper and avoided an interference that impacted an opponent."
Liverpool were saved by the officiating team and video review two minutes after when the striker was convinced he had added to Nottingham Forest's cushion.
Konaté, who experienced a dreadful match, made an unconvincing attempt to deal with an the midfielder's cross and deflected the ball against the forward, who handled before finding the lower corner of the goalkeeper's posts. Andrew Madley, in communication with his assistant referee, chalked off the attempt for a handling that various reviews struggled to verify or refute. The Premier League stated: "The decision of invalid score was checked and upheld by the video assistant – with it deemed that the player accidentally controlled the sphere before finishing."
Follow-up score extends cushion
Any hope from the reprieve. Within seconds of the kick-off the midfielder did not cut out a delivery towards Neco Williams inside the Liverpool penalty area. Williams evaded from his marker and set up Forest's second on a silver platter for partner defender Nicolò Savona, who found the keeper's top corner with a simple side-foot finish.
Managerial substitutions do not work
The manager took risks, bringing off Konaté with Hugo Ekitiké after 55 minutes and partnering the France forward next to Isak. That experiment persisted all of 13 minutes before Isak was substituted following a further anonymous performance. Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha were further thrown into the Anfield's frontline but sloppiness in possession and resolute opposition backline held the hosts at bay.
Late goal seals the outcome
Nottingham Forest showed the finesse and incisiveness that Liverpool were without in the opposition half to seal the match {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively
