Liverpool face a fight to extend their gap at the top of the Premier League when they travel to Nottingham Forest this afternoon.
The Reds have been revelling in cup success, following up their Carabao Cup triumph with an FA Cup win over Southampton.
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But Jurgen Klopp's men return to Premier League action with their injury crisis stretching their squad to breaking point.
The Merseysiders are top of the table and can extend their lead over Manchester City, who are involved in a derby against Man United a day later.
However, Liverpool have a torrid record away at Forest, who will be looking to bounce back from a humbling FA Cup exit in midweek.
Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: Bad omens
All signs point towards an injury-ravaged Liverpool squad being in for a tough afternoon at The City Ground.
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Forest are unbeaten in their last 13 home league games against Liverpool (W6 D7), including all six in the Premier League (W3 D3).
No side have Forest faced more times at home in the competition without ever losing (also 6 v Leeds), while it’s the outright most the Reds have visited a side in the Premier League without ever winning.
Only against Arsenal (18 from 1905 to 1928) have Liverpool ever had a longer run of away games without a win against a single opponent in the top-flight than their current run of 13 against Forest (D7 L6).
Liverpool lost 1-0 in this fixture last season, with their former player Taiwo Awoniyi scoring the winner.
Since Forest's return to the Premier League last season, no player has been involved in more league goals for the club than Awoniyi (20 – 16 goals, 4 assists).
But Liverpool can take solace from the fact that Tricky Trees manager Nuno Espirito Santo has lost all six of his Premier League meetings with the Reds.
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- Nottingham Forest manager Nuno Espírito Santo has lost all six of his Premier League meetings with Liverpool. Only four managers have a worse 100% loss record against a side in the competition – Gary Megson v Liverpool (lost 9/9), Marco Silva v Man City (9/9), Paul Jewell v Man Utd (8/8) and Chris Hughton against Liverpool (7/7).
- After their 3-0 win at Anfield in October, Liverpool are looking to complete their first league double over Nottingham Forest since 1984-85 under Joe Fagan.
- Nottingham Forest are unbeaten in their last 13 home league games against Liverpool (W6 D7), including all six in the Premier League (W3 D3). No side have Forest faced more times at home in the competition without ever losing (also 6 v Leeds), while it’s the outright most the Reds have visited a side in the Premier League without ever winning.
Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: Teams
Nottingham Forest: Sels, Williams, Omobamidele, Murillo, Toffolo, Dominguez, Yates, Hudson-Odoi, Gibbs-White, Elanga, Origi.
Subs: Turner, Sangare, Kouyate, Awoniyi, Felipe, Niakhate, Danilo, Ribeiro, Gardner.
Liverpool: Kelleher, Gomez, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Bradley, Clark, Mac Allister, Elliott, Diaz, Gakpo.
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Subs: Adrian, Endo, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Tsimikas, McConnell, Koumas, Danns, Quansah.
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- Since their return to the Premier League last season, no player has been involved in more league goals for Nottingham Forest than Taiwo Awoniyi (20 – 16 goals, 4 assists). The Nigerian has played in just 66% of their Premier League games in that time (42/64).
- Luis Díaz has been involved in five goals in his last five Premier League appearances for Liverpool (3 goals, 2 assists), more than he had in his previous 25 (3 goals, 1 assist).
- Liverpool have seen their substitutes produce a combined 21 goals (10) or assists (11) in the Premier League this season; in the competition’s history, only Manchester City in 2011-12 (24) and Arsenal in 2009-10 (23) have had more goal involvements by substitutes in a single season.
Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: What has been said?
Klopp said: "I would say Nottingham is a great place to play, but a difficult one as well. It was and will be tomorrow. The situation Nottingham are in, they have a similar situation to us; they need to win football games to reach their target.
"As much as we can't and as much as they can't, [we cannot] waste games or time. So, that's the opponent we expect. They made a few changes for the last game, [Callum] Hudson-Odoi didn't start, not sure if he was resting, but he came on so probably not.
"We probably roughly know who we will expect, who we have to expect and, besides that, in the moment for us [in] preparation, yes, we look at the opponent and do the analysis, that's clear, but it is a real task for us to find out how we can line up with all the games played and stuff like this.
"It's always about us before football games because we demand different things in the game, but in this time a little bit more than in others. When we find that then we can talk about all the rest.
"It will be a tough, tough challenge, that is 100 per cent clear. You could see Newcastle, Aston Villa and even Arsenal, it was not easy for any of them.
"That's clear, not only with but especially with the counter-attacking threat they are, it's massive with [Taiwo] Awoyni, [Anthony] Elanga, [Morgan] Gibbs-White and Hudson-Odoi or Divock [Origi] or stuff like this. That speed, they can be direct, they set it up a little bit like that.
"Protection is massive for us, that if we try to control the game we have to make sure we really control that part of the game as well. That's how football is and I am looking forward to it.
"We want to play the game, happy, do it there, great atmosphere definitely, so let's give it a go."
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- Liverpool have recovered 22 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season, their joint-most in a single campaign in the competition along with 2008-09. Away from home, 48% of their points this season have come from a losing position (12/25).
- Liverpool have won seven of their last eight Premier League games (L1), scoring at least three goals in each of their last six victories. The Reds are the highest scorers in the Premier League this season with 63 goals, with their rate of 2.4 goals-per-game their third-highest in a single campaign in the competition (2.7 in 2013-14, 2.5 in 2021-22).
- Nottingham Forest have scored in all nine of their Premier League games under Nuno Espírito Santo so far (17 goals in total), netting at least twice in seven of those. However, they’ve also only kept one clean sheet under the Portuguese (18 goals conceded in total).
Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool: How to follow
This Premier League clash will take place on Saturday, March 2.
Kick-off at the City Ground is scheduled for 3pm.
Unfortunately, this fixture will not be televised on UK screens due to the 3pm blackout in English football.
However, highlights will be available on the Sky Sports website and app shortly after the end of the match and then later on Match of the Day.
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Updates will also be live on talkSPORT throughout the afternoon as part of our GameDay Live coverage with Adrian Durham, Ray Parlour & Scott Minto.
talkSPORT.com will also provide the best of the reaction as well.