'Credit to him': £45m Liverpool player praised for unseen role in Diogo Jota's goal against Nottingham Forest

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Liverpool had to make do with taking a point from a real battle against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday.

The Reds had looked like they may be about to wilt under the lights at the City Ground, as so many have before them this season.

But after a difficult first period in which they fell behind to a clinical Chris Wood strike, Liverpool deserve credit for fighting back.

Ultimately, the Premier League leaders will be disappointed to have only come away with a draw.

After Diogo Jota equalised with his first touch in the 65th minute, Forest were holding on for dear life for much of the remaining 25 minutes.

Jota has earned praise for his performance, while Kostas Tsimikas‘ delivery – also with his own first touch – was exceptional, too. But according to former Liverpool players Martin Kelly and Sammy Lee, a third member of the Reds squad deserved a mention as well.

Cody Gakpo praised for unseen role

After how well Forest have defended over recent times – they were heading for a fifth Premier League clean sheet in a row – it was a surprise to see Liverpool score such a simple goal.

Up until that point, Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic had headed and cleared away everything that came at them.

However, after Murillo got underneath Tsimikas’ cross, it was an easy task for Jota to head home. Speaking on LFCTV after the game, Kelly said that the No.20’s job had been made even easier by the work Cody Gakpo did to deal with goalkeeper Matz Sels.

“Steve was shouting for 10 minutes to get Jota on! smiled the former right-back. So, when he did come on and it was his first touch!”

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“The crosses, we were talking about it in commentary, were not good enough first-half, second-half, and then he [Tsimikas] came on. And credit to Gakpo, he stopped the ‘keeper from coming and punching it. It was three, four yards out.”

“Defenders love being able to defend crosses like that,” Lee agreed. “You haven’t got to move, you’re just in the box, you’re knocking them out, ball after ball. But when there’s a little bit of movement, people going across people, causing problems. It produced the goal for us.”

Gakpo almost wins it at the death

After a very good run of form recently, Gakpo was more than a little quieter on Tuesday.

Things were not quite going for him in a first-half in which every pass to him seemed over or under-hit.

And while matters did not improve hugely for the £45m Dutchman in the second period, he was almost decisive once again right at the death.

His low, deflected effort through a crowd of bodies led to Sels making perhaps his most impressive stop of the night very late on.

Had that gone in, Gakpo would have been Liverpool’s saviour once again. But in a small, possibly unseen by many way, he kind of was anyway.