Premier League: How Nottingham Forest tactically exposed Liverpool

Forest opened the scoring by taking advantage of Liverpool’s poor form from set-pieces this season.

Excluding penalties, Slot’s side have conceded nine league goals from set-pieces this season – as many as they did in the whole of last season.

For the first goal, Liverpool had six players in the six-yard box including goalkeeper Alisson, while the visitors smartly only placed two in there.

One of these players applied light pressure on Alisson while their other player duelled with Virgil van Dijk, impairing his movement.

The real battle happened in the middle of the box where Forest and Liverpool set up in a 4v4 situation with Liverpool’s four consisting of Cody Gakpo, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah.

Early in the routine, Salah gestured to Mac Allister asking the Argentine to pick up one of Forest’s most dangerous players, Murillo.

Mac Allister was unable to do this as he was preoccupied with the player he was designated to mark. As a result, he stayed attached to his player throughout the corner meaning Murillo was a spare man.

Szoboszlai was tasked with marking Morgan Gibbs-White, but decided against tracking him to the near post – instead attempting to pick up the free Murillo at the last minute.