Nottingham Forest’s 38-year unbeaten home league run against Liverpool continues.
Sure, the stats boffins might point out that Forest’s 23 years away from the top flight meant there wasn’t a league game for two-thirds of that time. But that won’t kill the buzz floating out of the City Ground and down the Trent on a sunny October lunchtime.
From Forest’s perspective, there were so many things to bring joy and hope from the 1-0 win over Jurgen Klopp’s side on Saturday.
It was a three-point win. Sure, they were lucky that Liverpool didn’t convert at least three huge chances and Klopp looked shell-shocked at the end, utterly baffled at his team’s failure to score.
Forest was equal to Liverpool up until the final goal. They were dynamic, they pressed, they passed the ball better than they have in weeks, and they even created a few pretty good chances of their own, which hasn’t been evident previously this season.
Awoniyi’s team-mates celebrate his winning goal (Photo: Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)
Individual performances are another important aspect. The continuous improvement of Remo FreulerAt the midfield’s base. Dean HendersonForest have made a huge financial investment to loan kicking expert Corey, who has sometimes been a liability. Performances starting at Serge AurierAnd Cheikhou Kouyate that were good enough to inspire the question “what year is this?” Taiwo Awoniyi’s goal, a fine reward for him doing the grubby stuff as a lone target man.
Clean sheet: The second consecutive clean sheet. In the previous game, they had conceded only from a penalty after having scored 17 goals in five previous games.
There was also the encouraging knowledge that this wasn’t a good performance from nowhere, but rather a continuation of the gradual improvement in the last few games.
But, most importantly, this victory validated the decision to keep Steve Cooper. Many people expected him not to seek revenge for the back-toback 3-2 defeats. BournemouthAnd Fulham. Nearly everyone believed the 4-0 loss. Leicester CityThat would be the end.
Yet, Cooper stayed. Let’s not pretend that this was part of a great masterplan by the club’s hierarchy: Cooper’s retention and new contract were due to a range of factors, not all related to their absolute faith in his ability.
However, the right decision was made regardless of the way it was reached. Cooper realized that what worked last season in Championship did not work this time, and that gradually improving performances led to the win over Liverpool.
Maybe he was too optimistic to believe that his preferred 3-4-1-2 system would easily translate to the top flight. But with so many new players, it must have been one way for some continuity. However, Forest became too open in their midfield and were continually being overrun. The switch to a back four didn’t start well, with that thrashing at Leicester, but in subsequent games, the shape has shifted to a 4-5-1, occasionally 4-3-2-1, which has brought solidity and more control in the middle.
It speaks to Cooper’s lack of ego, to admit mistakes and realise that not making changes would just represent needless stubbornness. He has said on a few occasions that this isn’t the way he would like to play but recognises that it is necessary at the moment.
It was always going to take time to knit together so many new players — from tactical and mental points of view — to reproduce the togetherness of last season. Although there were no signs of progress in recent weeks, it was evident this time for the first 90 minutes.
Aurier sums up the mood at the end (Photo: Andrew Kearns – CameraSport via Getty Images)
The only negative aspect of the day was the repetitions of the chants that should embarrass Forest fan. It took under a minute for the first rendition of “Sign on…” aimed at the Liverpool support. The even more insidious “Always the victim, it’s never your fault” made three appearances before half-time. It’s a massive problem and a consistent one: it happened in the FA CupGame between the two seasons last season. There were similar songs from the away side when Forest visited EvertonThis was earlier in the season. This is the time when the club needs to intervene, either with some type of statement or outreach work, to reduce it the next time that the teams meet.
It was the one thing that took some of Forest’s spectacular day off. These wins will be the highlight of Forest’s day for fans. At the final whistle, Henderson launched himself into the crowd, celebrating the clutch of brilliant saves that contributed as much as Awoniyi’s goal to the victory.
Afterwards, Cooper repeated the usual platitude that this was just three points, can’t get carried away etc, etc. It could be the beginning of something, the victory that transforms this disparate group of players into one team.
“We’ve got to make it that,” Cooper said. “And that’s what we’ve just said (to the players). I want to see the boys even hungrier now.”
(Top Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images
