Liverpool supporters have been left furious by the performances of two men during Sunday afternoon’s Premier League win against Nottingham Forest. Arne Slot’s men moved level on points with Manchester United and Chelsea after a last-gasp winner despite a poor performance.
The Reds headed into the game in decent form after back-to-back wins against Sunderland in the league and Brighton in the FA Cup. However, the first half in particular was a nightmare for the visitors as Vitor Pereira’s men didn’t allow them a moment to breathe.
The second half saw a slight improvement from the away team, but the match was uninspiring as a contest. Neither side looked like grabbing a winner, and it looked set to fizzle out into a goalless draw. But Liverpool won it late on, as Alexis Mac Allister found the back of the net moments after seeing a bizarre effort ruled out.
Liverpool Supporters Slam Two Arne Slot Favourites
One of the more worrying signs for Slot’s Reds at The City Ground was the fact that Forest, who played a European away game on Thursday, dominated the midfield battle. Elliot Anderson, Ibrahima Sangare and Morgan Gibbs-White were all sharper than their opponents in the engine room, despite Liverpool having a week to prepare.
A late change to the starting XI saw Florian Wirtz drop out of the side due to an injury picked up in the warm-up, with Curtis Jones replacing him in the middle of the park. While the Englishman struggled immensely after the late call-up, it was his midfield partners who took the brunt of the supporters’ anger.
Both Ryan Gravenberch and Mac Allister, despite his goal, were torn apart by the Anfield fan base on X (formerly Twitter) during the match. The pair are firm favourites under Slot, but neither covered themselves in glory against an energetic Forest midfield.
One annoyed supporter labelled the duo ’embarrassing’ as they said: “Our midfield is woeful …. What’s happened to Mac Allister and Gravenberch? Both fell off a cliff this season. It’s embarrassing.”
Another put it down as the poorest performance they’d seen from either man, posting: “This is the worst Gravenberch and Mac Allister have ever played,” while another stated: “I’d quite happily swap Mac Allister and Gravenberch for Anderson and Wharton.”
“Liverpool look so sluggish out there.
“MGW is running circles around Mac Allister and Gravenberch.”
“Look at Jones, Gravenberch, and Mac Allister get the ball and lose it 3 seconds later. We are an embarrassment,” another irked fan tweeted.
Slot’s Midfield Struggles vs Nottingham Forest
Mac Allister did grab the winner in the end and deserves his plaudits for that. However, he only completed 26 out of his attempted 34 passes (76%) and lost possession of the ball 10 times as the Argentine looked leggy in the midfield.
Meanwhile, Gravenberch won just three of his six duels. The Dutchman looked lightweight in the middle of the park and showed his limitations as a number six against the likes of Gibbs-White and Anderson.
