Darren Bent slams Liverpool player’s passing during defeat against Nottingham Forest

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The repercussions of Liverpool’s surprise defeat against Nottingham Forest on Saturday are still being felt.

After a perfect opening three games of the season, the Reds undid a lot of their good work so far by falling to an appalling loss at Anfield.

Forest are undoubtedly a better side than they have been over the previous two seasons, but Liverpool should not be struggling to beat them, let alone losing on home turf.

Quite who is to blame for the shock turnaround is still being figured out. Arne Slot has to shoulder a lot of the disappointment, while Alisson Becker had his own theory, too.

Overall, though, Liverpool simply failed to do their job as a collective. For pundit Darren Bent, the Reds’ passing on the day was the biggest reason for their downfall.

Mohamed Salah criticised for poor passing

Liverpool’s ability to find each other had been a big reason for their success in the opening trio of matches.

The Reds are set up slightly differently under Slot, with the new head coach putting greater emphasis on keeping hold of the ball for a little longer.

This means having players on the pitch who are comfortable with the ball and know how to find their teammates more often than not.

Up until Saturday, that had worked a treat. Liverpool’s midfield was described as a ‘masterpiece‘ for the way they worked together on and off the ball and others were falling into step, too.

That changed against Forest, though, with the Reds posting a pass accuracy of 84% from 507 passes. That was significantly down from their previous home game, a 2-0 win over Brentford, in which they clocked 91% from 550 attempts.

READ MORE: Richard Keys says Arne Slot has done something at Liverpool that Jurgen Klopp never would

Speaking on TalkSPORT, former England striker Bent said that while the drop in pass completion was noticeable across the board, Mohamed Salah in particular stood out for not being able to find a teammate.

“I just think it was one of those days,” says the pundit.

“Everything they tried at the weekend, even the chance where Luis Diaz hits the post, that comes from a misplaced pass from Gravenberch. They just weren’t on the same page for whatever reason.

“Salah kept passing the ball behind people,” Bent adds. “They crossed when they probably should pass it. It was just one of those days where Liverpool all over the park were not at it.”

What were Mohamed Salah’s stats vs Nottingham Forest?

Looking deeper into the statistics, and Bent is perhaps right to call out Salah for his passing on Saturday.

Of the 11 Liverpool players who started the game, only Diogo Jota completed a fewer percentage of his passes than the Egyptian.

Salah made 28 out of his 40 passes, giving him a completion percentage of 70%, level with Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Given that Alexander-Arnold is widely regarded as one of the best passers in European football, that gives an idea as to how bad a day at the office this was.

Obviously, Salah is in the team to get goals and assists rather than rack up favourable passing statistics. However, the £34m failed to do that at the weekend, too, leading to a bad day all round.