Liverpool 3 Nott’m Forest 0: Rampant Reds seal third victory in a week to keep pressure on Premier League title rivals
JURGEN KLOPP has his team playing to a different beat these days – one that is making sweet music as opposed to the heavy rock of old.
The Liverpool boss looked pleased as punch following this cruise to victory and he was right to look so happy after Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez – and of course Mo Salah – plundered the goals.
For just ten league games into what the German calls Liverpool 2.0 his side is not only re-built but re-charged and thanks especially to the flair of Dominic Szoboszlai is one playing with a belief that many in the Kop last season feared might have gone for good.
This was fun to watch, at least for the German and supporters beginning to believe again.
Steve Cooper’s side never really had a chance of matching the pizazz and panache of a side that under Klopp’s guidance has gone from gegenpressing to gung–ho.
Then again Cooper effectively set his team up as sitting ducks by going for a back five and sure enough Klopp’s men loaded the gun and kept on firing.
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One reason why the Forest boss decided on containment was the loss of main striker Chris Wood to a hamstring injury which will keep him out for at least six weeks.
Yet his club hadn’t won on a visit to the red half of Merseyside since 1969 and the grand old days of Brian Clough.
He really had nothing to lose in at least trying to get cheeky about things but his have-and-hold tactic was in reality never going to work.
Klopp’s side hadn’t lost a Prem game at Anfield in the calendar year since Leeds United left with a 2-1 win and there was never really a doubt in the German’s mind that that unbeaten sequence would not be extended.
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Not in the way his players got briskly down to work.
Having said that, for a moment it seemed like it might become another one of those days for Nunez with half an hour gone.
He rose unmarked to meet Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner but sent his header over from ten yards.
The enigmatic Uruguayan didn’t need to fret for long however.
Less than sixty seconds later he was celebrating along with his team-mates at the Kop end as Forest resistance began to be shot to pieces.
Alexis Mac Allister captured the ball in his own half and sent it forward to Salah.
The Egyptian’s pass inside to Nunez, replacing distraught Luis Diaz as he suffered through family trauma following the kidnapping of his parents, let fly instantly.
Matt Turner got to that shot but could only parry straight to Jota and he couldn’t miss.
His reaction was not simply to enjoy himself but dash to the bench to grab a team shirt with the name of Diaz and his No7 and brandish it in a heartwarming show of support to the Colombian.
Four minutes later the lead was doubled following another scintillating counter–attack.
That move illustrated how important Szoboszlai has become and so quickly, too, since his £60million arrival from RB Leipzig.
The Hungarian looked at home almost from the very start of his new career as part of Klopp’s £150m midfield restructure this summer that has so revitalised things.
He was the beating heart of this performance and underlined that as the 23-year-old making himself the new conductor of his side’s high–tempo attacks pounced on Jota’s touch from inside the Liverpool half.
Szoboszlai clipped to the ever–ready Salah before taking the return and firing hard across the box.
Nunez was in the right place at the right time and this time also did the right thing – just allowing the ball to hit his foot and fly into the net.
Goalkeeper Turner didn’t know what had hit him but unscrambled his brains to make two fine stops as his side’s opponents were overrun.
Ryan Gravenberch, the last of those midfield incomers to be signed in a £34m deadline day switch from Bayern Munich, has shown that he, too, is settling in well and there was plenty of confidence about the strike that swerved and forced Turner into desperation.
The Forest No1 produced a similar stop to deny Szoboszlai seconds later.
Such was Liverpool’s dominance that after an hour Klopp was able to let Jota and Gravenberch put their feet up in favour of Harvey Elliott and Cody Gakpo.
But Liverpool kept on keeping on and Salah collected the final strike in the 77th minute.
It marked the 14th Anfield game in a row that he has either scored or assisted in although the assist this time came from Turner and sub Harry Toffollo between them.
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The ‘keeper and his defender found themselves stranded as both went for Szoboszlai’s long clearance.
Salah just made hay, dashing through to claim his 10th goal in a campaign that promises so much now that Klopp has changed his tune.