Liverpool vs. Nottingham Forest: *Bumper* Post-Match Analysis

Paul Tomkins, Andrew Beasley, Daniel Rhodes and other TTT regulars will give their thoughts on the match for 24 hours after the game, so the article received via email is unlikely to be the final version. There's statistics from the match and videos too.

Post-Match Thoughts

Paul Tomkins

You wake up for a game, and in checking the team news you find that the parents of one of your key players have been kidnapped in Colombia, and then the key result of the day is hoping they get out alive, whilst the updates sought via refreshing the page are to see if it's good news.

It's not ideal preparation for a game for anyone, but does remind us all that the world can be a scary, dangerous and insane place.

Indeed, I've been increasingly for keeping non-football-related politics out of football for a few years now, as football is an escape from the madness; we have minutes' silences for all kinds of random things, it seems. At times, there's far too much happening in the world to react to with enforced gestures in football stadia.

But when it's football-related, all tragedies should be acknowledged, and respected; which includes the deaths of legendary players and the dedicated owners of rival clubs. The applause before the game was good to hear.

That said, you don't normally wake to find a key player from your club has had his family kidnapped on the morning of a game.

Forest, with Divock Origi, Neco Williams, Taiwo Awoniyi and even manager Steve Cooper as ex-Reds, arrived as one of the lesser-placed teams Liverpool have faced, at 15th, albeit with 10 points, in contrast to the five, four and one, respectively, of the three promoted clubs, who Jürgen Klopp's men are yet to face.

Spurs, meanwhile, have faced all three; and are the only club in the Premier League yet to face opponents whose average points per game reaches 1.0 (theirs is 0.97); going into this one, the Reds had faced teams at 1.5ppg, as well as away trips to Spurs (where the refs altered the result), Newcastle and Chelsea, and the Mersey derby.

After Spurs at 1st for “easiest” games, Man City, 2nd, and Arsenal, 3rd, had faced teams with the fewest points per game, at just over 1.0. By contrast, Bournemouth and Sheffield United have faced teams with c.1.70ppg, so you have to take that into account (for Forest, it was 1.33 before the Reds will have bumped that up).

This is all good context for where Liverpool were, going into this game; excluding the additional challenges of four debatable red cards and the insanely chalked-off goal (which differed from every other mistake in that it was disallowed due to a breakdown in communication, not a missed incident or a judgement call).

Every team gets injuries, but kidnapped family is a much bigger concern.

In the end, this was a stroll, with Forest only having a shot on target after 94.5 minutes, as the very last kick of the game.

The Reds worked hard to break down a stubborn back XI, but got goals on the break on the rare occasions Forest ventured out of their own 6-yard box.

The majority of my analysis and the analysis of the others follows for subscribers only.