Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool tips: Go low at City Ground
- Matty Briggs
- 21 October 2022
Check out our key stats and suggested bets for this weekend’s Saturday lunchtime Premier League clash between Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.
This fixture would have prompted talk of a cricket score in pre-season. Jurgen Klopp's men, in fact, warmed up for another tilt at the Premier League with an impressive Community Shield win over the champions Man City.
Forest, meanwhile, were busy signing enough players to field two different teams.
But as soon as the action got underway in earnest, the Reds, without Sadio Mane, have been disappointing.
Back-to-back 1-0 home wins has brought some semblance of order to the Liverpool's season, but they are still miles off the side they looked last season.
One plus point from the narrow win over West Ham at Anfield on Wednesday was the form of Darwin Nunez. He was clocked at 38km/h against the Hammers, beating Kyle Walker's record of 37.802 km/h in June 2020.
His goal also handed Liverpool a crucial win and he will prove a handful for the likes of Scott McKenna and Steve Cook, who are not blessed with pace.
Liverpool, though, took their foot off the gas in the second half against West Ham and the visitors dominated the game and created a number of chances. It meant that Jarrod Bowen's missed penalty became crucial as Klopp came away with a "brilliant result".
There's no doubt Liverpool are a lot more vulnerable this season than they have been for several years, but a defensive Forest side will struggle to expose Klopp's men.
A switch to a back four has seen Steve Cooper's men tighten up in recent weeks. After switching to four at the back in the 4-0 defeat at Leicester, Forest drew 1-1 at home to Aston Villa before losing 1-0 at Wolves and drawing 0-0 at Brighton in midweek.
They were defensively sound on the south coast despite conceding 70% possession. And that seems like a decent rehearsal for Saturday's City Ground clash.
Forest did need the woodwork to rescue them when Leandro Trossard clipped the bar, but on the whole they were deserving of a point.
Cooper will need to make sure his side are defensively solid once more if they are to get anything from the game because in attack they have yet to hit any sort of groove.
Forest have scored one goal in their last four games and any chance they have of a victory will be to keep a clean sheet.
That looks a difficult task with the likes of Nunez, Mo Salah and Roberto Firmino all finding their feet in recent weeks.
Expect one of those to get the job done for Liverpool, who are a best-priced 2/7, but Forest will make it hard on the banks of the Trent.
Key stats
Suggested bets
- Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool under 2.5 goals
- Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool BTTS no
