Premier League: Liverpool 3 (Jota 31, Nunez 35, Salah 77) Nottingham Forest 0
Luis Díaz occupied the thoughts of everyone at Liverpool following news of his parents’ kidnapping in Colombia while Jürgen Klopp’s professional, commanding team maintained their winning streak at Anfield in his absence. Nottingham Forest were dismissed with ease as Liverpool made it eight wins from eight home matches in all competitions this season.
Díaz was understandably omitted from the match-day squad amid his on-going family ordeal. His replacement, Diogo Jota, started the victory with his fifth goal of the campaign before goals from Darwin Núñez and Mohamed Salah provided a more accurate reflection of Liverpool’s superiority. Cody Gakpo thought he had made it four in injury time but was denied by a VAR review for offside.
Liverpool came up against a deep defensive block for the second Premier League home game in succession and, just like the Merseyside derby, struggled to break down their opponents until capitalising on a centre-half’s mistake. But the hosts were supremely comfortable in possession prior to the opening goal, revelling in their command of Forest and patient in the knowledge their time would come.
The visitors were set up in a 5-4-1 formation by Steve Cooper and, whether by accident or design, showed little inclination to venture forward in numbers. The approach must have been draining for attack-minded players such as Morgan Gibbs-White, Nicolás Domínguez and Anthony Elanga but was vindicated by Forest’s carelessness in possession on the few occasions they did have it. Both first-half goals stemmed from Forest losing the ball in the Liverpool half and being instantly carved open before they had a chance to regroup
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