Liverpool have two stars to blame for Isaac’s nightmare

Liverpool suffered one other defeat, their eighth loss in 11 video games in all competitions, as troubles continued at Anfield. Arn Slott’s facet suffered a crushing 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, however Forest have now received away to the Reds for the second successive season.

It was one other disastrous efficiency for the Merseysiders. The Merseysiders lacked artistic concepts and seemed weak on the again. The primary objective got here once more from a nook kick. Murillo slipped into area, picked up the free ball and fired a shot previous the returning Alisson, giving Forest a 1-0 lead.

The East Midlands crew thought they’d a second objective, however Igor Jesus dominated the objective was canceled on account of a handball argument. The second objective got here seconds into the second half when right-back Nicolo Savona broke into the penalty field and fired house from about 10 yards.

Forest captain Morgan Gibbs-White rounded off an excellent day for his crew within the 78th minute. After some nice play from Omari Hutchinson, his shot was saved by Allison. However the Brazilian might solely handle to place it in Gibbs-White’s path, and Gibbs-White clinically sealed the victory.

The Reds had one other poor exhibiting, with Alexander Isak as soon as once more struggling.

Alexander Isak’s stats towards Forest

Isak’s begin to his profession at Liverpool was an actual stop-start. He has missed a complete of six video games for varied causes and has not performed within the Premier League since October 19.

His return to the highest flight towards Forest was disappointing.

The Sweden worldwide, who’s looking for his first Premier League objective for the Reds, was slotted house after simply 68 minutes along with his facet nonetheless searching for two targets to get again into the sport.

In truth, his numbers mirror how poorly Isaac carried out. He had simply 15 touches, misplaced the ball seven occasions, had only one shot, and had an anticipated objective of 0.13xG.

One of many individuals criticizing Liverpool’s quantity 9 was Objective journalist Stephen Darwin. He gave the Swede’s efficiency at Anfield a score of two/10, noting that he had “not reached his ceiling but” when it got here to scoring within the Premier League.

Nonetheless, the blame shouldn’t be essentially solely on the striker for not getting the providers he wants.

Two gamers struggled to get the ball to Isak.

One of many key issues that Darwin highlighted in evaluating Isak’s efficiency was the truth that he “barely kicked” the ball. In fact, 15 touches makes for poor reads, however you continue to have to offer the ball to the centre-forward.

Two of the gamers who suffered from this have been wingers Kodi Gakpo and Mohamed Salah. General, it wasn’t the worst efficiency. Though Salah created three probabilities and Gakpo as soon as, their possession was sloppy and so they gave up the ball a complete of 53 occasions.

Nonetheless, their service to the Reds’ centre-forwards was insufficient at finest. In line with StatZone, Liverpool’s quantity 10 handed to Isak simply thrice, whereas Dutch worldwide Gakpo twice.

That is actually not the extent of service he wants to begin discovering his finest in entrance of objective. That is in all probability on account of a profile battle. Salah and Gakpo are each inside forwards who like to chop inside, into areas much like these the place Isak performs.

Or perhaps the issue is just a scarcity of time on the pitch along with his new team-mates. Isak has missed many of the season and it might take a while for the trio to gel.

Both approach, it is a drawback that slots should clear up quickly. The Reds’ kind is a serious concern as they fall additional down the Premier League desk. The Dutchman might want to offload a big-money striker and first-choice winger to rectify this malaise.