Liverpool were left with another uneasy 2-2 draw against Nottingham Forest on Saturday lunchtime, but the post-match focus quickly shifted to the fourth official\u2019s substitution board and away from the issues that had already put the result in jeopardy.<\/p>\n
The flashpoint arrived in the 66th minute when Forest introduced Liam Delap. Liverpool had three changes lined up, with Kostas Tsimikas, Ryan Gravenberch and Rio Ngumoha ready on the touchline, but only the English striker was sent on. Seconds later, an overhit Cody Gakpo cross ran out for a corner in Forest\u2019s half, yet fourth official Tim Robinson was still working on the boards that show the numbers of players coming on and off.<\/p>\n
Play continued, and when the ball went out again shortly afterwards without the substitutions being completed, Iraola went to Robinson and protested with animated gestures. The match was halted again in the 68th minute, but Delap quickly took a throw-in for Neco Williams, who poked the ball past Alisson to win a penalty. Morgan Gibbs-White converted.<\/p>\n
Victor Mu\u00f1oz later rescued a point, but Iraola was in no mood to soften his view. \u201cI cannot explain because I don\u2019t have an explanation,\u201d he seethed to assembled media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to make those substitutions about three minutes before. It was two, three, four times the ball had gone out. He [the fourth official, Robinson] was having some problems with the board. The penalty wouldn\u2019t have happened if I had made the subs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had complained the previous time. The supporters were shouting and they were aware of the situation. I\u2019ll leave you to decide whether it was a penalty or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alisson also reacted angrily after the final whistle, driving his studs into the substitution board as he left the pitch.<\/p>\n
Yet the delay was only part of the story. Liverpool\u2019s first-half display was the deeper problem, with the side again twice falling behind against organised opposition. Newcastle had already exposed Liverpool in transition, and Forest found other weaknesses from last season, including susceptibility to long balls, set pieces and a lack of urgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first half was poor, it was not good enough,\u201d Iraola admitted. \u201cWe haven\u2019t controlled the game and after we improved a lot in the second half. We were much more intense, quicker on the ball and had more urgency, but it hasn\u2019t been enough to win the game and we have to blame the first half.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool enjoyed 63% possession but managed only four shots and one on target, leaving Forest\u2019s compact defensive block largely untroubled. For a team adjusting to a system built on energy and pressing, the early signs have brought unavoidable teething problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool\u2019s draw with Forest exposed delay, frustration and deeper problems than the substitution board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,298],"tags":[1836,180],"class_list":["post-18834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-nottingham-forest","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}