Nottingham Forest boss names Liverpool star they targeted during surprise win (original) (raw)

Nuno Espirito Santo reveals the Liverpool star Nottingham Forest targeted in shock win

Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo's half-time instructions helped his team record their first victory at Liverpool since 1969 in one of the weekend's biggest upsets

Nuno Espirito Santo gave his Nottingham Forest team specific instructions to stifle Virgil van Dijk

Nuno Espirito Santo told his Nottingham Forest team to stop Virgil van Dijk as they claimed a shock 1-0 win at Liverpool.

After a goalless first half, Forest struck in the 72nd minute through Callum Hudson-Odoi to clinch all three points and record their first triumph at Anfield since 1969.

Liverpool were unbeaten this season heading into the match after winning all three of their games under new head coach Arne Slot - but some half-time tweaks from Nuno helped turn the tide in the visitors' favour.

Speaking post-match, the former Tottenham boss revealed he was unhappy at the space Van Dijk had been given in the first half and made it clear that had to change after the interval.

He said: “We are very happy. Many of our fans weren’t even born when we last won here, they know how hard it is to play here. We are proud of the work of the players, they worked very hard.

“Overall we knew how hard it was going to be today and it was about taking our chance at the right moment and we did that. At half-time we were trying to correct some things that we saw. [Virgil] van Dijk was breaking into spaces too many times.”

Liverpool talisman Mohamed Salah headed into Saturday's fixture in fine form after notching three goals and three assists across the Reds' opening league fixtures.

Nuno revealed that he had urged his players to stop giving Virgil van Dijk so much space (

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Getty Images)

But the Egyptian forward was stifled by Nottingham Forest new boy Alex Moreno, who joined the club in the summer from Aston Villa. He and fellow summer signing James Ward-Prowse were singled out for praise by Nuno afterwards, with the Portuguese coach adding: “Alex had a hard task going one-v-one up against Salah but I think he did well. But when he finished he was really tired!

“James, he pretty well managed the game, holding his position, he has great knowledge of the game. Now we are in the process of giving him the idea of the team but he understands it very well.”

Slot rejected the idea that the international break was behind Liverpool's shock defeat, saying: “It’s always difficult but I don’t think [the break] had anything to do with it. Players came back strong and I saw today a team that wanted to fight until the end. That wasn’t to do with energy. We simply had the ball a lot we had to create from ball possession.

Callum Hudson-Odoi scored Nottingham Forest's winner in the second half (

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Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA)

“If you look at the goals we scored until now, we scored quite a few from transition moments from winning the ball back but the other team (Forest) played over our press a lot with a lot of long balls. We mostly got the ball in our last line.

“It wasn’t good enough today because too many individual performances in ball possession were not up to the standards that I’m used to from these players."

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