… er, a huge game at Portman Road
Nuno Espírito Santo said that at Bournemouth last weekend, where they were humbled 5-0, his Nottingham Forest side had been “not accurate and missed a lot of passes”. It is interesting that four of Forest’s last five – and five of their last eight – Premier League games rank in their bottom eight of the season on pass completion. “We have to perform much better,” he said. “We have to be more solid and play better football. We have so many things to improve.” Though results in that period, at least until last week, continued to be good they have relied on statistically unlikely displays of finishing prowess. Before their trip to Bournemouth, Forest had scored with nine of their previous 12 shots on target in all competitions and the last time a Chris Wood shot on target failed to go in was before Christmas. Both Nuno and Fabian Hürzeler were sent off for misconduct during a rancorous conclusion to the fixture between these sides at the Amex Stadium last September. Simon Burnton
Darren England has never taken charge of a senior Liverpool game, and has been kept away from the club entirely since he, as VAR, was key in the calamitous decision to disallow a Luis Díaz goal against Tottenham last year (the assistant VAR in that game, Dan Cook, will have the same role here). England is being gradually reintroduced to the Reds – he was fourth official for Liverpool’s trip to Wolves in September – but is still not being let anywhere near Anfield. This will be a test of England’s nerve, should any member of the home team go down in their opponents’ penalty area. Having awarded only one penalty in the Premier League this season (only one referee, Michael Salisbury, has given none), this game between the league’s leading penalty-winners – Bournemouth have been awarded seven this season, scoring six; Liverpool have scored all of their five – could be a particular test. …
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