Nottingham Forest pile more misery on Liverpool with fantastic victory at Anfield

By Carl Markham, PA

Nottingham Forest stunned Anfield for the second successive season with a historic 3-0 win consigning a disjointed and dispirited Liverpool to a sixth league defeat in seven matches.

Murillo, Nicolo Savona and Morgan Gibbs-White scored the goals, but much of the damage was self-inflicted by Arne Slot’s side, whose title defence lies in tatters as they slipped to 11th in the table.

It was Forest’s biggest win at Anfield – and the third in six matches under new manager Sean Dyche – and Liverpool’s heaviest home defeat since losing 4-1 to Manchester City in 2021.

Defeat adds more fuel to the fire of critics who say the Reds’ £450million summer spending spree has destabilised the team and it was no more evident than putting British record signing Alexander Isak straight back in the team after a month out as Slot tries to fast-track his return to match fitness.

The ploy did not work with the Sweden international looking out of touch with his team-mates, managing just one touch in the opening 20 minutes.

But the truth is there are too many playing poorly, the defensive resilience is almost non-existent, connections are not working and morale is low.

Ibrahima Konate, whose contract expires in the summer, continued to look like a player whose mind is elsewhere with an error-strewn performance which led to the first goal and but for an almost imperceptible handball would have led to another two minutes later.

When he got away with pushing Igor Jesus to prevent the striker racing onto a nutmeg, Slot put the France international out of his misery and replaced him with striker Hugo Ekitike.

That prompted a switch to 4-2-4 with the Frenchman partnering Isak but it made little difference.

Confidence is so fragile that once Liverpool, who had been the better team for half an hour, conceded they fell apart and even Mohamed Salah, who had started to resemble a more familiar version of himself, could not drag them back.

Forest’s impressive England midfielder Elliot Anderson had denied Alexis Mac Allister with a superb goalline block while Milos Kerkez ballooned over from close range.

But when Konate’s poor touch needlessly gave away a corner, Murillo fired home after Anderson’s corner flicked off Virgil van Dijk.

Slot had plenty to say to the fourth official about an offside Dan Ndoye in front of goalkeeper Alisson Becker, back after two months out, in a situation not too dissimilar to the goal Liverpool had ruled out against Manchester City before the international break with Andy Robertson ducking under Van Dijk’s header.

He had barely stopped complaining when Jesus drilled home when Konate failed to clear a cross but the ball was ruled to have hit his arm and endless television reviews could not provide VAR with a reason to overrule referee Andy Madley.

Goalkeeper Matz Sels saved from Mac Allister and Salah but a minute into the second half Liverpool’s defensive disorganisation – they had midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai playing at right-back due to injuries to Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong – was exposed again.

Former Liverpool full-back Neco Williams wriggled his way into space on the left and cut back for Savona to steer home.

Salah continued to try to drag Liverpool back into the game, poking wide and then being bundled off the ball by Nikola Milenkovic in the penalty area

But Alisson parrying Omari Hutchinson’s 78th-minute shot into the path of Gibbs-White not only created Forest history but a personal one for the midfielder, scoring in three consecutive games for the first time in his career.