Liverpool player ratings, winners and losers vs Nottingham Forest as Isak and 5 more really struggle

ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL // Liverpool fell to its sixth defeat of the Premier League season with another terrible performance at home to Nottingham Forest, leaving it in the bottom half of the table.

Murillo put Sean Dyche's side in front in the first half of the game and only a minute into the second, Nicolo Savona had double the visitors' advantage when he was left unmarked near the edge of the penalty area.

Arne Slot had changed things up in his starting XI but those moves didn't pay off. Alexander Isak, in particular, struggled to get himself involved and rarely looked threatening in attack on another difficult outing in L4, with Morgan Gibbs-White sealing a 3-0 win for the visitor.

Winners

It was a positive for Liverpool that Alisson Becker returned and there were one or two decent signs from other players. In the main, though, this was another victory for those A) around the Reds in the table and B) hoping to use set-pieces as a means of stopping them from picking up points.

That remains a huge issue for Arne Slot to solve. The international break clearly hasn't helped in that regard.

Losers

While he started out pretty well, Ibrahima Konate had a torrid period in the second half of the first 45 minutes. He made one error and that led to a string of other mistakes, with the Frenchman seemingly losing his composure.

He was fortunate that Igor Jesus was adjudged to have handled the ball or that would have been 2-0 before half-time. Around that incident, he was all at sea at times, swinging at the ball and looking panicked.

Alexander Isak wasn't so heavily involved, but that was his issue. The Swede needs game time to improve and get back up to speed, but he put in a performance here that was pretty much anonymous.

Player ratings

Alisson Becker (6). Back in the team for the first time since limping off against Galatasaray in September, he didn't have a great deal that was realistic for him to deal with. The argument would be that Dan Ndoye was in his way when the first-half goal flashed past but he wouldn't have saved it anyway.

Dominik Szoboszlai (6). Filling in at right-back, as he often has done this season, the Hungarian drifted inside at times. His range of passing from deeper is a useful attribute in that position but he needed to recover quickly a couple of times as he readjusted to playing in defense. Fine, but nothing more.

Ibrahima Konate (5). Decent enough in possession and front-footed when it came to winning the ball back to start with, but then tailed off dramatically. Fortunate when Nottingham Forest thought it had a second through Igor Jesus only for the goal to be ruled out. He seems to make one error and then a few more follow at the moment.

Virgil van Dijk (6). Won pretty much everything that came near him in the air and was commanding. Led the defense but couldn't do much when a couple of Nottingham Forest counter-attacks caused problems, nor with another set-piece being conceded.

Milos Kerkez (6). Needing to make a positive impression while he was chosen to play ahead of Andy Robertson, the 22-year-old did well in the main. He scooped a shot over the bar after good work from Salah early on but was lively down the left and tucked in well defensively a couple of times.

Ryan Gravenberch (6). He started well but then went missing for a period. Came back into it in the second half but was unable to turn the tide with a solid bank of Nottingham Forest bodies in front of him.

Alexis Mac Allister (5). Playing as the most advanced of the midfield three, the Argentine started fairly well but tailed off in the first half, like the whole Liverpool team. Similar in the second half.

Curtis Jones (6). Some good bits (including a delightful backheel to dig himself out of a hole when he was surrounded by two Nottingham Forest players and the touchline) but this was his first start in a while. Mixed.

Mohamed Salah (5). His touch and dribbling looked sharp early on and he beat Neco Williams, the Nottingham Forest left-back, a few times. That final pass or shot was usually missing, though, and far from the end, he was out of ideas.

Alexander Isak (4). Handed the chance to start over Hugo Ekitike, the Swede was fairly anaonymous. He needs minutes to get up to speed but looked a mile off it. The one shooting chance he had, he sliced.

Cody Gakpo (5). Linked up well with Kerkez a couple of times early on, which is a relationship that is still being worked on. He needed to be stronger at times and lacked a yard of pace to beat his man on occasion and frustrated the crowd at times.

Substitutes

Hugo Ekitike (6). Offered a bit of pace in the Liverpool attack, which was welcome. Couldn't do anything to bring more out of Isak, though, who he was playing alongside.

Federico Chiesa (6). Offered little in front of a low block of Nottingham Forest players. It was too much to expect him to do it all alone.

Andy Robertson (6). The third goal came down his side but he wasn't on long enough to pin the blame on him. Even more so, that also applies to Rio Ngumoha, who came on even later.