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Nottingham Forest's win here in the prior year was a blip in an otherwise commanding English top division performances at Anfield for the Merseyside club. A second successive win in the current campaign, a decisively stronger victory under the Forest boss, was symptomatic of the issues afflicting the struggling former winners.

Forest's outstanding display

Nottingham Forest proved brilliant as they secured their largest victory at the famous ground. Goals from Murillo, outstanding at each end of the pitch, Nicolò Savona and the superb Gibbs-White inspired a merited victory for a squad that also maintained a maid clean sheet in twenty Premier League matches.

Anfield's struggles

The Reds, by contrast, were a mess as they suffered an 8th loss in 11 fixtures to slide into the bottom half of the table. Ineffective at dead-ball situations, repeatedly, impotent in attack, again, with Alexander Isak replaced after sixty-eight quiet moments, and vulnerable at the back, they struggled in all departments to succumb to a consecutive heavy reverse.

Initial pressure without result

For half an hour the home side maintained the upper hand, the infrequent break from Gibbs-White aside, but the shortcoming to capitalize on opportunities into the hard currency of finishes proved costly. Mac Allister was given an initial chance from Gakpo's run into the penalty area only for Anderson to produce a superb desperate block with his head. The Liverpool midfielder had a second shot blocked moments later while dazzling footwork from the winger produced another close-range opportunity for the defender. An opposition player just did enough to disturb the back into blazing over.

Set-play weakness hits once more

Arne Slot has frequently criticized Liverpool's weakness to fast breaks and set-plays now. This provided new reason for concern when Forest opened the scoring through a combination of the both aspects.

The Forest manager was shocked after Jesus was unable to find the midfielder in space on the fast attack and presented the defender the opening to clear. The following set-piece sparked ecstatic scenes in the visitors' bench, however, when Elliot Anderson's delivery deflected off Virgil van Dijk to Murillo and the central defender hammered an unbeatable shot from inside the box into the back of the net. There were similarities of the defender's chalked-off strike against Manchester City in the Forest's opener with the forward standing in an illegal position in front of Liverpool's fit-again goalkeeper Alisson.

The review system decisions and dispute

Predictably, the Van Dijk was quick to point out the parallels to the referee, Madley. However, unlike Robertson at the City's ground, Ndoye made no apparent gesture in front of the keeper and the strike remained. The league confirmed: "The initial ruling of a score was checked and confirmed by the assistant – with it deemed that the player was outside of the sightline of the goalkeeper and did not make an action that affected an defender."

Liverpool were saved by the officiating team and VAR two minutes following when Jesus was convinced he had added to the visitors' advantage.

The defender, who endured a dreadful day, made an unconvincing attempt to remove an Ibrahim Sangaré's ball and turned the sphere against the Forest striker, who handled before finding the lower corner of the keeper's posts. The referee, in communication with his assistant referee, ruled out the strike for a handling that various replays struggled to confirm or deny. The authority announced: "The referee's call of invalid score was assessed and supported by the video assistant – with it considered that Jesus unintentionally touched the sphere before netting."

Another strike widens cushion

Any hope from the let-off. Within seconds of the restart Mac Allister failed to cut out a delivery towards Williams inside the Liverpool 18-yard box. The full-back turned from his opponent and set up the visitors' second on a platter for fellow wing-back Savona, who found the goalkeeper's top corner with a simple side-foot finish.

Tactical substitutions prove ineffective

Liverpool's coach went for broke, substituting the defender with the forward after 55 minutes and pairing the French attacker next to Isak. This change lasted for only 13 minutes before Alexander Isak was withdrawn following another ineffective performance. Federico Chiesa and the youngster were also thrown into the hosts' offense but sloppiness in play and solid opposition backline prevented the hosts at arm's length.

Late strike confirms the outcome

Forest showed the precision and cutting edge that Liverpool were without in the opposition half to seal the match {beyond doubt|out of reach|conclusively