HP Terbaru 2023 – Liverpool head to a Forest side looking for a new manager bounce

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By Sam McGuire

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Unwanted history

Nottingham Forest have just appointed their fourth manager of the campaign, a Premier League record. Following the 0-0 draw with bottom of the table Wolves, Sean Dyche was dismissed and Pereira was appointed. The Portuguese tactician worked under Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis when he took charge of Olympiakos in 2015 for a brief stint.

The pair have reunited at the City Ground with Forest hoping the one-time Porto boss can keep them in the Premier League. With 12 matches left to play this season, they’re just three points above the drop zone and have won only two of their last 10 outings in the English top-flight.

There haven’t been many home comforts for Forest this term either. They’ve won three of their 13 matches at home in the Premier League, averaging a goal a game and conceding 1.38. They have, however, drawn their last three at the City Ground, holding Arsenal to a 0-0 draw, claiming a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace before the 0-0 with Wolves last time out.

Forest did also stun Fenerbahće in the Europa League on Thursday evening, claiming a 3-0 win in Istanbul.

Liverpool, meanwhile, stuck with manager Arne Slot despite the Dutchman coming under severe pressure just a few months after guiding the Reds to the Premier League title.

A 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest at Anfield was perhaps the lowpoint of the season for Liverpool and it forced Slot into making changes to his system. It even saw him drop Mohamed Salah.

The Reds did manage to put together a rather unconvincing 12 match unbeaten run across all competitions before defeat to Bournemouth. Slot’s side have won four of their consequent five though, scoring 15 times in the process. In a recent press conference, the former Feyenoord boss said Liverpool need to be near perfect to claim a top four finish this season, meaning Sunday is a must-win games.

Easier said than done. Perhaps surprisingly, Slot has yet to taste victory against Nottingham Forest.

Key Players

For the hosts, the main man is once again Morgan Gibbs-White. It’ll be interesting to see whether Forest can keep hold of him again this summer having fended off Tottenham ahead of the 2025/26 campaign. The England international leads the way for goal involvements with nine.

For Liverpool, the focus will be on Mohamed Salah. He’s been scoring and assisting since returning from AFCON and his return coincides with Liverpool finding the back of the net on 20 occasions across their last seven outings. If anyone can fire the Reds into the top four, it’s him.

Team News

Matz Selz and Chris Wood are definitely out for Nottingham Forest but Murillo and Nicolo Savona could be back after missing the draw with Wolves.

Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni are ruled out for the season for Liverpool while Stefan Bajčetić, Jeremie Frimpong and Alexander Isak are out for the foreseeable future. Dominik Szoboszlai – whose importance we profiled earlier this week – will return to the starting XI in the Premier League having missed the 1-0 win over Sunderland after picking up a red card against Manchester City.

Prediction

We’re sticking with a narrow win for Liverpool regardless of the changes in the home dugout. Let’s go with 2-1.

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(Cover image from IMAGO)

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