Nottingham Forest display should signal the end of 'struggling' player's time as a Liverpool starter - opinion

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Liverpool put in a Jekyll and Hyde performance against Nottingham Forest on Tuesday to win themselves a respectable point.

Forest have been the Premier League’s surprise package this season and started the day sitting in third place.

And after Chris Wood gave Nuno Espirito Santo’s team an early lead, Forest fans must have been dreaming about cutting the gap to Liverpool to just three points.

Although the home side deserve enormous praise for the way they made life difficult for Liverpool, it was also plain to see that a number of Arne Slot’s players were well below their usual level during the first-half.

For some of them, that changed as the game developed and they found a better standard. For others, that improvement never came.

One player who struggled throughout was left-back Andy Robertson. Robertson was hooked on 65 minutes and with his replacement – Kostas Tsimikas – serving up Liverpool’s equaliser immediately, the 30-year-old now looks set for a spell on the bench.

Kostas Tsimikas ends left-back debate

There has been plenty of worry over Liverpool’s left-back situation during recent months.

Robertson has been ‘struggling‘ to use the words of Gary Neville – and other pundits besides – with the Scotland captain starting to fade after a stellar career with the Reds.

Jamie Carragher thinks Liverpool should buy a left-back in January, and he won’t be alone in that thinking.

However, for the time being, it looks fairly certain that Slot is going to stick with what he currently has in the Liverpool squad.

READ MORE: What Diogo Jota told Kostas Tsimikas before coming on to score for Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest

That means picking between Robertson and Tsimikas as his starting left-back.

It has been coming since the start of the season, really, but after Tsimikas came on and instantly delivered a big goal for Liverpool, Slot surely has to make the Greek his number one for the foreseeable future.

Robertson fails to make his mark again

This was not just about the importance of Tsimikas when he came on, but it’s fair to say that Robertson had another difficult night in the Premier League.

The Scot coped relatively well with the pacy Anthony Elanga, but his passing and in particular his set-piece delivery was all wrong throughout his time on the pitch.

With another tricky away game on the calendar at Brentford on Saturday, Slot’s decision over who should start has been made incredibly easy.

Tsimikas is not perfect by any means and it seems a near certainty that Liverpool will have a new starting left full-back next season.

But, in the meantime, Tuesday was another example that, for now, the Greece international is the best Liverpool have got.