Alisson takes swipe at Nottingham Forest tactics and explains why Liverpool lost

Alisson
-Credit: (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)


Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson believes Nottingham Forest showed little intent to attack in Saturday’s 1-0 win for the visitors and lamented an 'unnecessary' defeat. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s long-range effort on 72 minutes proved enough to condemn Arne Slot to his first defeat as Reds boss.

Liverpool controlled possession and directed five efforts on goal but failed to provide the potency shown in their first three matches of the season. Forest recorded their first win at Anfield since 1969 and Alisson, who conceded for the first time this season, felt irked by the tactics employed by Nuno Espirito Santo's side.

"It was a shame, losing points at home is not good at all but the opponent today only wanted to defend and play for the long ball,” the 31-year-old said, as per BBC Sport. "We gave them that too easily when they scored, it was poor defensively from us. We couldn't create much, we had a lack of quality today, we needed more energy.

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“It is three points we have lost today unnecessarily. All the opportunities we had were not clear enough and they defended great, they threw themselves in front of the ball."

Liverpool completed more than double the amount of passes Forest managed to put together (591) but were left frustrated by Forest’s low-block. Manchester City’s win over Brentford means the Blues have opened up a three-point gap over the Reds, who travel to Milan on Tuesday for their Champions League opener.

Ahead of the flight to Italy, Alisson sent a message to his Liverpool teammates about defensive concentration. “Second half they made changes and we didn't adapt quick enough,” he told Sky Sports.

Alisson
Alisson has kept three clean sheets prior to the defeat to Nottingham Forest on Saturday -Credit:Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images

"We had to deal with three counter attacks before we conceded the goal. So we should defend better in those situations. You have to defend better in front of your box, be more aggressive."

Asked how Liverpool would react to the setback, head coach Slot said post-match: “I want to see the same energy every single day, after a big win, after a small win, after a draw, after a loss.

“We need to go out to work again tomorrow, analyse what we did well and what we didn’t do well. There were things we could improve after the Man United game and we showed them also a few good things. That’s going to be the same tomorrow and the day after.

“This was a different game to the ones we played until now because we faced a low block, the team we faced played really low. Because of a result of that we had a lot of ball possession but were not able to create a lot.”