# Next Up: The Reds Return to Anfield for Premier League Action Against Nottingham Forest #LIVNFO
There is something almost ceremonial about the first home fixtures of a new Premier League season, and this weekend Anfield gets to host one of those occasions as Liverpool welcome Nottingham Forest for a Saturday lunchtime kickoff. The scale of change hanging over this match is hard to overstate. This is not simply another entry on the fixture list, another three points to chase in the long grind of an English top-flight campaign. It is the first sight Liverpool’s own supporters will get of a genuinely new era, with Andoni Iraola now in the home dugout after his move from Bournemouth, tasked with succeeding Arne Slot, who was let go following a fifth-place finish that fell well short of what a club with Liverpool’s ambitions demands. New manager, new shape to expectations, and a crowd desperate to see evidence that the club’s inconsistent recent form was an aberration rather than a trend.
Liverpool’s opening weekend brought a 2-2 draw away at Newcastle, a game that swung on emotion as much as tactics given the context surrounding St James’ Park. Cody Gakpo got his name on the scoresheet, and Dominik Szoboszlai produced the moment that will live longest in supporters’ memories, converting a stoppage-time penalty deep into the 99th minute to rescue a point that had looked to be slipping away. Coming from behind twice in one match says something about the resilience Iraola is trying to instill early, even if the underlying performance likely leaves plenty of room for improvement. A point on the road against a spirited Newcastle side isn’t a disaster, but it is not the emphatic start that would have quieted any doubts about the summer’s managerial change either. Liverpool sit on one point and a goal difference of zero heading into this one, a reminder that even for a club of this stature, the margins early in a season can be desperately thin.
Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, arrive at Anfield in altogether more turbulent form. Their own managerial change, with Oliver Glasner now leading the club, got off to a difficult start: a 1-0 home defeat to Leeds United, settled by a stinging direct free-kick from Anton Stach deep into the contest. It was the kind of result that raises immediate questions, not just about results but about selection, given that Glasner opted to leave big-money summer signing Ousmane Diomande on the bench for the full ninety minutes before introducing Xaver Schlager only late on. Whether that was a message about fitness, tactical fit, or simply a manager still working out his best available team, it is the sort of decision that will be scrutinized further if performances don’t pick up quickly. Across their last five matches in all competitions, Forest have two wins and three defeats, a record that speaks to a team still searching for consistency under a new voice in the dressing room. Their pre-season form offered mixed signals too, with morale-boosting wins over Bayer Leverkusen and Brest offset by defeats to Barcelona and Udinese, the kind of schizophrenic form line that makes it genuinely difficult to predict how they’ll show up on any given weekend.
History between these two sides adds an extra layer of intrigue, because Forest have hardly been pushovers for Liverpool in recent seasons. The most recent meeting, back in February of this year, ended in a narrow 1-0 win for Liverpool at the City Ground, but this fixture has produced its share of surprises too. Go back to November of last year and Anfield itself was the site of one of the more startling results of that campaign, a 3-0 defeat for Liverpool on their own turf. Across the last five Premier League meetings between these clubs, Liverpool hold the edge with three wins to Forest’s one, with a single draw sitting between them, but that solitary Forest win at Anfield is the kind of result that lingers in a fanbase’s collective memory. It is proof, if any were needed, that this fixture carries more unpredictability than the gulf in overall squad quality might suggest, and it’s part of why supporters heading to the ground on Saturday won’t be treating this as a formality no matter what the bookmakers say about the odds.
Team news will shape a great deal of how this match actually plays out, and on that front Liverpool have some real selection headaches to navigate. Conor Bradley remains out, as does Joe Gomez, leaving the fullback and central defensive areas a little light on established options. Hugo Ekitiké is also unavailable, which matters given the goalscoring questions that have followed this Liverpool side, and both Jayden Danns and Giovanni Leoni round out the list of absentees. To make matters more complicated, Curtis Jones goes into the weekend as a doubt with a groin issue, meaning Iraola may have to make late calls in central midfield as well. Mohamed Salah remains the focal point of this Liverpool attack regardless of who lines up around him, and with Federico Chiesa and Andrew Robertson expected to offer additional attacking threat further forward, there is still enough quality in this squad to trouble any Premier League defense, Forest’s included. How Iraola configures his midfield without Jones, and how he manages the fullback positions without Bradley, will be one of the more interesting subplots to watch as team news firms up in the hours before kickoff.
Forest have their own absentee list to contend with, missing Nicolo Savona and Ryan Yates, both of whom would ordinarily be expected to feature in a game of this magnitude. That leaves Olufisayo Aina and Igor Jesus as two of the players Glasner will lean on most heavily to generate an attacking or defensive spark against a Liverpool side that, on paper at least, should have the superior individual quality across most areas of the pitch. Predicted lineups suggest Liverpool could go with a back line built around Virgil van Dijk marshalling the defense, Jeremie Frimpong offering pace and width, Ryan Gravenberch anchoring midfield, and Szoboszlai continuing the sort of influential, late-game impact he demonstrated against Newcastle. On the Forest side, names like Nikola Milenkovic, Neco Williams, and Morgan Gibbs-White are expected to be central to whatever gameplan Glasner devises, with Milenkovic in particular likely to be tasked with the unenviable job of containing Salah for large stretches of the afternoon.
What makes this fixture worth genuine attention beyond the raw form guide is the sense that both clubs are, in their own ways, at inflection points. Liverpool’s decision to move on from Slot after what was, by their own recent standards, an underwhelming season, was a statement of intent from the club’s hierarchy. Fifth place simply isn’t acceptable for an organization that has spent the better part of a decade competing at the very top of English and European football, and bringing in Iraola, a manager who built a reputation for organized, aggressive football at Bournemouth on a fraction of the resources available to him now, is a bet that fresh ideas and fresh energy can drag this squad back toward the level its talent suggests it should be operating at. Early impressions from the Newcastle draw were encouraging in terms of character, if not always in terms of control, and a home crowd at Anfield tends to amplify both the good and the bad in equal measure. A strong, convincing performance here would go a long way toward settling any nerves inside the stadium about the direction of the club under its new manager. A stumble, particularly a repeat of that shocking home defeat to Forest from less than a year ago, would understandably set off alarm bells much earlier in the season than anyone at the club would like.
For Forest, the stakes carry a different flavor but are no less significant. Glasner’s arrival was meant to represent stability and progressive football after a period of change at the City Ground, but an opening-day home defeat to Leeds has already put some early pressure on his methods, particularly the decision to hold back a significant summer investment like Diomande. Away trips to Anfield are rarely kind to visiting sides regardless of form, and history tells us that Forest are capable of springing a surprise there when conditions align in their favor, but they’ll need a far sharper collective performance than they managed against Leeds if they hope to leave Merseyside with anything to show for the trip. The frustration for Forest supporters will be that their team has shown, in patches during preseason and in flashes during that Leeds defeat, signs of the identity Glasner wants to build, but turning those flashes into ninety-minute consistency against elite opposition is an entirely different challenge.
Tactically, this should be a fascinating watch for anyone interested in how two newly installed managers are shaping their teams in these opening weeks of the season. Iraola’s Bournemouth sides were known for relentless pressing and a willingness to play through pressure rather than around it, traits that, if successfully transplanted to a squad with the individual quality Liverpool possess, could make this version of the Reds significantly more vertical and direct than the version supporters grew used to under Slot. Whether that identity is visible so early in his tenure, particularly with defensive injuries disrupting his planned setup, remains to be seen, but Anfield crowds tend to respond well to visible effort and intensity even when the finished product is still a work in progress. Glasner, for his part, built a reputation at Eintracht Frankfurt and Crystal Palace for tactical flexibility and a willingness to adapt his approach based on opposition strengths, which suggests Forest may not simply sit back and absorb pressure the way some visiting sides to Anfield have chosen to in the past. If Glasner senses an opportunity to exploit gaps left by Liverpool’s makeshift defensive options, particularly in the fullback areas where both Bradley and Gomez are unavailable, expect Forest to look to play with more ambition than a typical away side at Anfield might otherwise attempt.
There is also the matter of Salah, who remains central to essentially every conversation about this Liverpool attack regardless of who else is or isn’t available. Last season he finished with figures that underlined just how integral he remains to this team’s output going forward, and questions about his long-term role and form have followed him into this campaign given his age and the natural conversations that come with a player entering the latter stages of an extraordinary career. Early signs from the Newcastle match suggested he remains a threat capable of unlocking defenses even on days when the rest of the team isn’t firing on all cylinders, and Forest’s defensive setup, built around the likes of Milenkovic and Williams, will need to be alert to his movement from the very first whistle. If Liverpool struggle to break down a well-organized Forest side in open play, Salah’s ability to manufacture something from half a chance may end up being the difference between two points dropped and three points banked.
Beyond the individual battles and tactical wrinkles, there’s simply the atmosphere to consider, which anyone who has been to Anfield on a matchday will tell you is its own kind of factor. A first home game under a new manager tends to bring an extra layer of anticipation, supporters eager to get their first proper look at how their team wants to play, how the crowd itself can influence momentum during the inevitable lulls that occur across ninety minutes. The Kop has a way of lifting a struggling performance and punishing a laboured one in equal measure, and given the disappointment of last season’s fifth-place finish, there will likely be an added edge to how supporters respond to whatever unfolds on the pitch. A slow start met with murmurs of anxiety wouldn’t be surprising given recent history against this exact opponent, but a bright opening twenty minutes, particularly one that yields an early goal, could turn Anfield into the kind of atmosphere that genuinely functions as an extra man for the home side.
Ultimately, matches like this are exactly why the opening weeks of a Premier League season carry such disproportionate weight in shaping the broader narrative that follows a club for months afterward. Liverpool go into this game as clear favorites on paper, with more individual quality across the pitch and home advantage working in their favor, but Forest’s recent history at Anfield, combined with the genuine uncertainty that surrounds any team playing under a brand new manager, means nothing here should be treated as a formality. Iraola will be desperate to give his new supporters something to be genuinely excited about after a summer of change, while Glasner will be equally determined to prove that his side’s opening-day stumble against Leeds was a blip rather than an early indicator of a longer struggle. Add in the layers of individual subplots, from Salah’s continued influence to the selection puzzles both managers face due to injuries and fitness doubts, and this has the makings of a match that will tell us a great deal about where both of these clubs genuinely stand as the 2026-27 season starts to take shape in earnest. Kickoff is set for Saturday, August 29th, with Anfield expected to be at full voice from the very first whistle, ready to find out exactly what kind of team this new-look Liverpool side is going to be.