Nottingham Forest v Liverpool: Player props appeal at the City Ground

• Forest have faced 15+ shots in 8/11 games
• Liverpool are averaging 17.50 shots per-game
• Alexander-Arnold, Nunez and Firmino prices appeal

Cooper positive on Forest's prospects

Nottingham Forest head coach Steve Cooper has said his Tricky Trees outfit will take on Liverpool "with confidence" at the City Ground on Saturday. Without a win in nine, the Reds boss is under no illusions that his side face a difficult test but insists belief remains high in the squad, particularly on the back of keeping a clean sheet at Brighton on Tuesday night.

Forest were second best throughout their 0-0 draw at the Amex Stadium with profligate finishing and the performance of goalkeeper Dean Henderson allowing the newly-promoted outfit to claim a creditable point. Cooper has made several tactical adjustments since an alarming run of five consecutive defeats and is keen to build on the midweek point.

He said: "For the players to show the resilience, desire and spirit they did, it's ended up being a good point. Is that exactly what we want to be? No. But there were signs. There's small progress. Don't get me wrong there's a lot to improve on but there's certainly a real commitment from the players every single day and we move onto the next challenge."

And Cooper says Forest will not go into the Liverpool clash fearing their opponents, adding, "There might not be that many weaknesses, but at the same time, you've got to go into these games really backing yourself and really thinking you can make a difference. We'll be going into the game with confidence."

Liverpool go back-to-back

Liverpool recorded back-to-back Premier League triumphs for only the second time this term when following up their memorable 1-0 success over Manchester City with a 1-0 victory against West Ham at Anfield on Wednesday night. Darwin Nunez scored his first home goal for the Reds and Alisson saved a penalty in an incident-packed encounter.

The Merseysiders weren't able to reach the same heights as three days earlier, and Jurgen Klopp's troops lived dangerously at times but still managed to get the job done. Unpredictable and inconsistent by their own high standards this season, Liverpool still racked up 22 shots on the night without dominating the contest against the Hammers.

Klopp made five changes to his team, with James Milner, Andy Robertson, Fabinho, Harvey Elliott and the injured Diogo Jota making way for Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kostas Tsimikas, Jordan Henderson, Fabio Carvalho and Nunez and was pleased with his team's performance.

Speaking post-match, he said: "I like a lot of parts in the first half when we played exceptional football. As long as we played football, we were in charge of the game. For some reason, we couldn't do that consistently and the game opened up. We could have done better but the result is outstanding and I'm very happy to get three points."

Merseysiders red-hot favourites

Nottingham Forest were beaten 1-0 when welcoming Liverpool to the City Ground in last season's FA Cup, the first clash between the two teams for 23 years. The duo now face-off in league action for the first time since 1999 when playing out a 2-2 draw; Jamie Redknapp, Michael Owen, Dougie Freedman and Pierre van Hooijdonk were on-target that day.

Nottingham Forest 13.0012/1 have managed a solitary success since promotion - here against West Ham way back on MD2 in August - and come into this contest having picked up just three points from a possible 27 since (W0-D3-L6). The Tricky Trees have at least stemmed the defensive bleeding of late, leaking only two goals in their most recent three outings.

Liverpool 1.292/7 are winless on their travels this term following draws at Fulham and Brighton, as well as defeats against Manchester United and Arsenal. However, Jurgen Klopp's charges did demolish Rangers on the road in the Champions League 10 days ago and arrive on the banks of the Trent having posted three victories on the spin.

Play the props

In such lopsided betting heats, it can be hard to pinpoint obvious value options, although I think there's potential when delving into the player props. Nottingham Forest have faced a minimum of 15 shots in eight of their 11 Premier League ties this term, conceding 16 efforts at goal on average across their 2022/23 campaign.

With Liverpool firing in at least 15 attempts in seven of their 10 league tussles - averaging 17.50 per-game - I'm keen to put together a combination of likely candidates in the Bet Builder at a nice price to cheer on.

Set-piece specialist Trent Alexander-Arnold has taken Over 1.5 Shots in seven of his 11 EPL encounters when playing at least an hour and looks well worth including. Elsewhere, Darwin Nunez has landed an on-target attempt in five of his past six Liverpool starts, and Roberto Firmino has followed suit in six of his most recent seven starts for the Reds.

Combining Trent Alexander-Arnold 2 or more Shots with Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino to have 1 or more Shots on-Target gives us a generous a 2.89/5 option to support at the City Ground.