For 98 minutes this was a game of slog for Liverpool. Nothing seemed to go right for Jurgen Klopp’s side. Nottingham Forest had set-up with the expected game plan. They had dropped deep and allowed Liverpool to control possession.
It turned into a frustrating match for the Reds. Liverpool created plenty of chances but they just couldn’t find the opening goal. No matter how many opportunities they created, the clinical edge was missing on the afternoon until of course Darwin Nunez came along in the 99th minute.
But until then, Liverpool didn’t have the best of games. It’s hard to fault anyone really. You have to give credit to Forest, they did what they set out to do and that was to irk Liverpool. Which they did really effectively. Nothing sums that up more than Harvey Elliott’s reaction.
Harvey Elliott’s reaction to being substituted
Elliott was brought off in the second half to be replaced by Dominik Szoboszlai. And the 20-year-old looked really frustrated as he took his place on the bench.
Broadcast cameras spotted him hitting the bench in frustration and looking quite upset.
We can’t blame Elliott for being frustrated. He may not have played his best game in a red shirt. However, you have to give him credit. This has been an extremely demanding 10 days or so, where Elliott started four games and missed only 26 minutes from those four games.
With that in mind, he was still really lively in this game and caused plenty of problems for Forests’ defence. There is no doubt that Elliott is a fantastic talent. This was just a learning curve for him.
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