Jurgen Klopp makes honest admission over Liverpool form amid Nottingham Forest’s own concerns

Nottingham Forest return to action this weekend when they face a resurgent Liverpool side.

Steve Cooper’s men face a huge task to beat the Premier League drop amid a disastrous run of form. Forest are just goal difference from safety, but they are now 10 games without a win, and they have a tricky fixture list to navigate between now and the end of the season.

That begins with Liverpool this weekend, and while it hasn’t been an ideal season for Jurgen Klopp’s men, there are encouraging signs. Liverpool came from behind against Arsenal to draw recently, before going on to thrash Leeds United 6-1 away from home on Monday night.

During those clashes, the Merseyside club have improved defensively, and that may be because of a change of formation that has seen Trent Alexander-Arnold move into a holding midfield role.

After the win over Leeds, Klopp was asked whether the move was to get the best out of Alexander-Arnold’s attacking game, or whether it was to offer better protection amid defensive strugggles for his side

“It’s both,” he responded to Sky Sports. “We saw with Darwin, he can make exceptional passes. He can be both, but in general, we need to be better protected as well because we have conceded too many counter attacks, we have lost the ball in the wrong moments.

“You saw as well, Trent played a really good game, but whe we lost the ball, the reaction was completely different. We didndn’t lose that many balls because we were calm on the ball, The one we lost int he completely wrong moment was obviously the goal we conceded, but we must be able to protect and this formation suits us much better.”

Forest will be hoping Liverpool’s defensive improvements are not on display at Anfield this weekend, with Cooper’s men desperately needing a result to avoid slipping deeper into the bottom three.