Michael Dawson suggests two Liverpool players were so dominant against Forest

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Liverpool centre-backs Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk were absolutely dominant in the air against Nottingham Forest today.

That was the view of Sky Sports pundit Michael Dawson. In quotes from Football Daily after Liverpool’s opening goal this afternoon, the former Forest defender said the Reds pair had headed ‘pretty much everything.’

“It’s another corner Jeff, I think that’s the seventh corner,” began Dawson, describing Diogo Jota’s opener. “They’ve had free-kicks, balls coming into the box, it was only a matter of time. Virgil van Dijk and Konate have got their heads on pretty much everything.

“They get pretty fortunate, Fabinho heads it towards him [Jota] and he’s literally two yards out, couldn’t miss this one, no chance. Fabinho keeps it alive, just gets ahead of Lodi and it’s 1-0 Liverpool.”

In a game where set-pieces were the order of the day, the Reds made theirs count just that little bit more.

Not the best day for Liverpool’s defenders

Despite Dawson’s suggestion here, we weren’t actually all that impressed with either Konate or Van Dijk today.

They may have won their fair share of headers, but neither was really able to cope with the strength of Taiwo Awoniyi.

Virgil was sloppy on the ball while Konate allowed Awoniyi to bully him off the ball more than once. Throw in a couple of slightly comical goals conceded, Brennan Johnson hitting the bar and Awoniyi almost bagging a bicycle kick, and you have anything but a dominating display.

Nevertheless, Virgil and Ibou did just enough to ensure they came out on the winning side.

In terms of attacking set-pieces, Dawson did perhaps have a point. Van Dijk came close to scoring in the first-half with a bullet header that Keylor Navas tipped over. If that goes in, then maybe we’re talking about a different performance at full-time.

As it was, we can’t imagine Jurgen Klopp will have been too happy with either of his centre-backs today. Conceding two at home to a side in the bottom three isn’t a good look. If they start again midweek at West Ham, Konate and Van Dijk will have to be better.