Liverpool 2–2 Nottingham Forest: Iraola Still Winless as Anfield Falls Behind Twice Again

Liverpool have changed the manager but not the pattern. Andoni Iraola's first home Premier League game ended in a 2–2 draw with Nottingham Forest at Anfield on Saturday, a lunchtime kick-off in which Liverpool trailed twice, equalised twice and extended a run that now stands at six games without a win. It is their longest such sequence since 2012.

Forest struck first through Dan Ndoye on 24 minutes. Alexander Isak levelled just past the hour, only for Morgan Gibbs-White to restore Oliver Glasner's side's lead from the penalty spot on 70. Víctor Muñoz spared Liverpool with a deflected finish eight minutes from time. Two matchweeks into 2026/27, Liverpool have two points, having also come from behind twice to draw 2–2 at Newcastle United in the opening round.

Six games without a win, and the same way of losing control

The number is the story. Six matches without a victory, a run carried over from the end of last season, is Liverpool's worst since 2012 — a statistic that predates most of what this squad has been built to do. It has now survived a change of manager, which is the part that will unsettle Anfield rather than the dropped points themselves.

Iraola did not dress it up. Asked whether he was frustrated, he was blunt about what the table actually rewards, and he was harder on the opening 45 minutes than most of the supporters filing out of Anfield were likely to be. His verdict was that Liverpool never controlled the game before the interval and only became themselves after it.

“The first half has been poor from our side,” the head coach said. “I think we haven't been good enough, we haven't controlled the game… afterwards we improved a lot in the second half. We were much more intense, much quicker on the ball.” That reading is fair. It is also the second week running that the improvement has arrived only after Liverpool had already handed over the lead.

This is the awkward part of the diagnosis. Iraola, 43, was appointed on 4 June on a two-year deal, replacing Arne Slot after Liverpool finished fifth in 2025/26. He arrived from Bournemouth, where he took a club with a fraction of Liverpool's resources to sixth and into Europe for the first time in their history, and he did it with a high, aggressive press that needed time and specific personnel to install. Two league games is no sample at all. Six winless is beginning to be one.

Glasner's Forest led twice at Anfield, and deserved to

Forest were not passengers in somebody else's crisis. Oliver Glasner's side led twice on this ground and, for long stretches of the first half, looked the better organised team. Ndoye's opener on 24 minutes came in a spell when Liverpool could not settle, and Forest went back in front through Gibbs-White's penalty at exactly the point in the second half when the home crowd had begun to believe the afternoon had turned.

The penalty was the flashpoint, and Iraola would not be drawn on it. “I leave you to decide if it's a penalty or not,” he said — a pointed non-answer rather than a complaint, and one that left the decision hanging over a game Liverpool had already made hard for themselves.

Even the equaliser carried a caveat. Muñoz's 82nd-minute finish took a deflection on its way in, which is a fair summary of the afternoon: the pressure eventually told, but the goal that rescued the point was not the sort of passage anyone will hold up as evidence of a system clicking. Forest, having led twice away from home against a side of this standing, will feel the draw flatters the hosts.

Yes. I'm frustrated because we want to win – especially at home… what makes the difference are the wins and the three points.— Andoni Iraola, Liverpool head coach

Key facts

Key numbers

• 6 — Liverpool games without a win, carried over from 2025/26; their longest run since 2012
• 2 — points from two matches in 2026/27, after a 2–2 draw at Newcastle United in Matchweek 1
• 2 — times Liverpool fell behind and equalised, in each of their opening two fixtures
• 43 — Iraola's age; appointed on 4 June 2026 on a two-year deal
• 5th — where Liverpool finished in 2025/26 under Arne Slot
• £34.5m — reported fee for Víctor Muñoz from Osasuna this summer

What happens next

The summer transfer window closes on Tuesday 1 September at 23:00 BST, harmonised this year across the Premier League, the EFL and the other major European leagues. That gives Iraola barely more than 48 hours from the final whistle to change the shape of a squad he largely inherited. Liverpool have already spent: Muñoz arrived from Osasuna this summer for a reported £34.5m, and the club are reported to have paid around £55m for the Rennes defender Jérémy Jacquet.

The wider question is patience. Iraola signed for two years, which is short by the standards of a club appointing a manager it expects to rebuild around, and Liverpool are only two games into a season that follows a fifth-place finish. Nobody sensible draws conclusions after two matchweeks. But the run is six now, not two, and the head coach has already named the only column of the table that settles the argument.

Liverpool v Nottingham Forest: kick-off time and where to watch

Liverpool v Nottingham Forest was a lunchtime kick-off at Anfield on Saturday 29 August, part of a Matchweek 2 programme that opened on Friday 28 August and does not close until Monday 31 August. That four-day spread is why kick-off time confusion is so common at this stage of a season: an English lunchtime slot in BST falls in the late morning in UTC, at breakfast on the US East Coast (ET) and in the small hours on the Pacific coast (PT). Anyone working out where to watch the fixtures still to come in this round, or how to watch the highlights from this one, needs the TV channels holding the rights in their own country rather than a generic schedule. Full country-by-country TV channel and live stream listings for this fixture, plus live scores and the running table, are on OneLightScore — the broadcast listings below are drawn from live rights data, so they reflect the actual live football on TV in your market.

Matchweek 2 does not finish until Monday 31 August, so the table above is still moving. OneLightScore carries live scores from every Premier League fixture as it happens, plus full TV listings for anyone who would rather watch live online than follow the ticker.