One Liverpool star came in for sharp criticism after delivering a \u2018completely anonymous\u2019 display during the Reds\u2019 3-0 home collapse against Nottingham Forest on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Arne Slot\u2019s side slipped to their sixth Premier League defeat of the campaign \u2013 already 50% more than their total from last season \u2013 as Forest, who began the day in 19th place, arrived at Anfield and strolled to what Wayne Rooney labelled a \u2018comfortable\u2019 win.<\/p>\n
Alexander Isak had scored in all four of his previous league appearances against Forest, but he never looked likely to extend that run this time.<\/p>\n
Isak blasted for \u2018anonymous\u2019 outing in Liverpool loss
\nReinstated to the starting lineup by Slot, the 26-year-old was withdrawn midway through the second half as the manager searched desperately for a spark to rescue the champions.<\/p>\n
Sky Sports\u2019 Laura Hunter, covering the match live, wrote upon his substitution in the 68th minute: \u201cRobertson and Chiesa being readied. Isak\u2019s afternoon is over. He\u2019s been completely anonymous again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isak fails to take his chance to impress
\nChosen ahead of Hugo Ekitike, this was the perfect moment for Liverpool\u2019s club-record \u00a3125m signing to make a statement to Slot and the wider football world. Instead, he may have strengthened the case for the Frenchman to return to the lineup for Wednesday\u2019s clash with PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n
Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo awarded the Swede a disappointing 4\/10 in his player ratings, noting that he managed only a single touch in the opening 15 minutes and politely describing his overall performance as \u201cnot great\u201d.<\/p>\n
The numbers back it up. According to Sofascore, Isak lost all seven duels he contested, completed just six passes from eight attempts in 68 minutes, failed to register a shot on target, and touched the ball only 15 times.<\/p>\n
Isak\u2019s disrupted pre-season and groin injury haven\u2019t helped his rhythm, but this afternoon he \u2013 much like Liverpool as a whole \u2013 fell far short of the standards expected of him.<\/p>\n
It would be premature to write him off so early in his Anfield career, but the Swede will need a strong performance soon to ease the scrutiny brought on by such a subdued showing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One Liverpool star came in for sharp criticism after delivering a \u2018completely anonymous\u2019 display during the Reds\u2019 3-0 home collapse against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Arne Slot\u2019s side slipped to their sixth Premier League defeat of the campaign \u2013 already 50% more than their total from last season \u2013 as Forest, who began the day …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":55083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/liverpool-players-huddle-1200x673.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55082"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55084,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55082\/revisions\/55084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}