Anfield Grows Restless: Liverpool Chase the Game Again as Forest Take Their Point

There is a rhythm settling over Liverpool's season that supporters will not enjoy, and this 2-2 with Nottingham Forest was another verse of it. Seventy percent of the ball, wave after wave of possession, and yet twice they found themselves behind and twice they had to dig out an equaliser. A run of draws has become the backdrop, and at Anfield the mood curdled into frustration — four yellow cards for the home side, goalkeeper Alisson among the booked, the sign of a team playing against the scoreboard as much as the opponent.

The most revealing number belongs to the visitors. With just 30% possession, Nottingham Forest generated 2.30 expected goals to Liverpool's 1.61 — proof that they were not merely surviving but genuinely threatening every time they broke. Dan Ndoye's opener on 24 minutes, set up by Morgan Gibbs-White, was the template: absorb, spring, strike. Gibbs-White then scored himself on 70 to restore Forest's lead. For a side camped in their own half for long stretches, that is a ruthlessly efficient way to spend possession, and it left Liverpool's dominance looking hollow.

Liverpool's fightback had its flashpoints. Florian Wirtz had a goal cancelled on 32 minutes — a decision that, in a match decided by fine margins, mattered. Alexander Isak levelled on 60 from Cody Gakpo, and after Gibbs-White's second, Victor Munoz rescued a point on 82, fed by the same Wirtz whose earlier effort had been chalked off. Two goals from behind is character; needing to show it against a side with a third of the ball is the worry.

For Nottingham Forest, this is a result to build on — a fearless, clinical away display that the expected-goals data says deserved at least a point and perhaps more. For Liverpool, it extends a sequence that is quietly becoming a story: control without cutting edge, possession without protection, and an Anfield crowd learning to sit through nervy afternoons. The talent is not in question. The consistency, on this evidence, increasingly is.