Having swaggered into the international break with a spring in their step, Liverpool lurched back to Premier League action with one of the most insipid Anfield displays for quite some time.
Home defeats here have been incredibly rare in recent times and have usually come asterisked by an inspired goalkeeping performance, a questionable refereeing decision or remarkable misfortune.
This 1-0 reverse to Nottingham Forest, though, was none of the above. There is no hard-luck story to bemoan or referee to chastise; Liverpool got what they deserved against a well-drilled Forest, who didn’t really give their hosts an inch in the final third, particularly full-backs Ola Aina and Alex Moreno, who ensured Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz kept their contributions to a minimal.
If Arne Slot is to make a real splash in his maiden campaign then home form will be imperative and Anfield was generally a stronghold for Jurgen Klopp across much of his time on Merseyside.
December draws against Manchester United and Arsenal hurt the Reds last term, Manchester City were also able to squirm away with a point despite being dominated in March and a loss to Crystal Palace in April that all but ended any genuine title aspirations.
All of those results, however, came with caveats and disclaimers. Callum Hudson-Odoi’s superb finish to a razor-sharp Forest counter involving fellow substitute Anthony Elanga left Liverpool with no such excuse here and a run of games that will see the Reds play seven times in 21 days started in the worst possible way.
In an opening half that was typical of the first one immediately after an international break, Liverpool struggled to create anything of note against a Forest team determined to sit in and break the game up with some agricultural tactics. Alexis Mac Allister was more often than not the recipient, with the Argentina international sent to the turf on a number occasions.
Diogo Jota might feel he could have done better from Mac Allister’s sumptuous outside-of-the-foot cross before Matz Sels almost gave the hosts the lead when dropping a looping but tame header from Diaz on his goalline.
The chances came at a similar premium after the break and Sels will be wondering how on earth he was not worked harder as the Reds looked a far cry from the side that had sauntered into the break with a 3-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford tucked away in their back pockets.
The real worry for Slot was just how easy it was for a disciplined but largely limited visiting team to pilfer all three points at a venue that should be one of the most imposing in the country.
Having made his 100th Egypt appearance earlier this week, Salah looked massively out of sorts, particularly in the second period and was given no change from Moreno on his Forest debut, while Aina on the other flank was similarly effective in subduing Diaz, whose exploits during the international break came thousands of miles away in Lima, Peru and Barranquilla, Colombia.
Did the air miles of his key men not feature prominently enough for Slot in his pre-match preparation? This felt like an opportunity to begin the resting and the rotating with AC Milan up next in the Champions League but the head coach went with the same 11 as recent weeks.
In full fairness, the introductions of Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo, for Jota and Diaz, did nothing to redress the paucity of what had been served up prior to their arrivals and Nuno Espirito Santo was able to toast to a perfectly-executed gameplan to seal Forest’s win at Anfield since back in 1969.
Dominik Szoboszlai was another who visibly struggled and it was difficult not to feel for Harvey Elliott as he recovers from a foot fracture on England Under-21 duty. The midfielder might have brought a measure of poise that was sorely absent in the final third and how the on-looking Thiago Alcantara might have also felt he could have contributed positively as he watched on from the directors’ box having retired over the summer.
The final rubbing of salt into the wounds of Slot came as he walked past a Forest dressing room that was pounding the sort of music usually reserved for the dancefloors of Ibiza. The press rooms and post-match mixed zone were all shaking as the tunes rattled around the area reserved for the jubilant visitors.
“They’re having a right old party in there,” revealed one member of staff to the ECHO and it was hard to blame them too as they ended a 55-year wait for a win here.
Fortress Anfield? Sadly, it was party central for Forest.
