Slot has to bench the Liverpool flop that won the duel on 3/12

Liverpool beat Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in the Premier League on Sunday, taking their lead in all competitions to three points.

Alexis Mac Allister’s stoppage-time goal sealed all three points for the Reds, but the goal was canceled out for handball just minutes before the point was due.

Reds supporters were still left worrying about Virgil van Dijk’s potential offside when the midfielder found the back of the net for the second time, only to be narrowly found to be onside.

The circumstances surrounding Mac Allister’s two ‘goals’ may have been frustrating for those involved, for fans and for the club, but some Liverpool players were even more frustrated.

Ahead of the next Premier League game against West Ham, manager Arne Slott may want to drop both wide players after their performance against Forest.

Why Liverpool need to make changes to both wingers

Kodi Gakpo started on the left wing for the Reds, but his disappointing performance for the club means he will be dropped against the Hammers.

The Dutchman has one goal and zero assists in his last 11 appearances, and one goal and zero assists in his last 12 Premier League games.

But he is not the only winger to be left out against West Ham, with Mohamed Salah also having to be left out of the side for the second time this season.

Gakpo and Salah lost the ball 28 times between them and only created one chance, but Liverpool struggled to create chances for much of the match, failing to register a single shot on target.

The winning shot came after both players had already left the game, with Rio Ngmoha coming off the bench and creating one “big chance” with two successful dribbles in just 13 minutes on the pitch.

Salah and Gakpo should be left out for their ineffective performances on Sunday, but Liverpool had players who were even worse than both of them.

Liverpool’s failure was worse than Salah and Gakpo

Despite the win against Forest, Slott has some big decisions to make ahead of the game against West Ham as some players failed to step up and perform.

Liverpool suffered an unwanted upset when Florian Wirtz came on as a substitute during the warm-up and had to be removed from the match day squad at the last minute, with Curtis Jones replacing him in the XI.

Unfortunately, with Jones struggling on the field, Wirtz’s replacement in the team wasn’t the most dominant performance on the field for Slott.

In his 83 minutes on the field, the England international created more chances against Forest (3) than against Liverpool (0) and made three errors that led to opponents’ shots. He let his team down several times with loose passes in his own half, three of which resulted in shots.

There were too many moments where Jones held onto the ball for too long, delayed his passes and dribbles, and ended up giving the ball back to the home team.

In addition to struggling in possession at Liverpool, the central midfielder lost most of his duels, winning just three of 12 matches and did not make a single tackle in 83 minutes.

So Jones let his team down with his work on and off the ball, on and off the ball. The reason was that he was not effective with the ball, made several errors and was too weak without the ball.

He was even worse than Gakpo and Salah, as neither of Liverpool’s starting wingers made mistakes that led to Forest’s shots, nor did they miss “big chances” like Jones.

If Wertz misses Sunday’s game with an injury, Slott could move Joe Gomez down to right back and move Dominik Szoboszlai back to the center wing of the park to keep Jones out of the lineup.