Steven Gerrard has named the surprise player Liverpool ‘should have kept’ after their 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday.
Andoni Iraola is still awaiting his first win as Reds manager after his side were deservedly held at Anfield, a week after scraping a draw at Newcastle United.
Forest twice took the lead through Dan Ndoye and a Morgan Gibbs-White penalty only to be pegged back by Alexander Isak and Victor Munoz.
Among the standout performers for Oliver Glasner’s side was the former Liverpool defender Neco Williams, who won the penalty and thrived both defensively and offensively.
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‘Neco’s been great for Forest, I think Forest has been great for him. It’s a good match,’ Liverpool legend Gerrard said of the left-wingback on TNT Sports after full-time.
‘The fans love them. He’s committed, he’s excellent out of possession, he’s physical.
‘And he’s playing out of position at the moment. You’ve got to remember he’s a right-back or a right-wingback and he’s doing a fantastic job for the team on the left.
‘Over the course of the season, he can cover both sides. So I think from a manager’s point of view you certainly wouldn’t want to lose him.’
Gerrard coached Williams while in Liverpool’s academy but the Wales international made just 13 appearances in the Premier League before he was sold to Forest for £17million in 2022.
Before kick-off, the former England midfielder expressed his disappointment with that decision: ‘This is a player that trains the way he plays.
‘He comes in every morning; he does everything right; he’s very professional; he’s a winner. He’s very aggressive, he’s a competitor, and we already knew he’d got the talent.
‘If you put everything around your talent, you can play at this level and you can stay at this level. And I still think he hasn’t hit his ceiling yet; I still think he’s at an age where he can go to the next level with experience and time and more games.
‘He’s playing out of position; he’s doing an incredible job on the left side. Can you imagine what he’d be like if he played on the right side?
‘For me, he’s a fantastic full-back and – I’m not just saying it and I apologise to the Forest fans – Liverpool should have kept him, that’s for sure.’
That decision is perhaps more infuriating as following the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold to Real Madrid last summer, right-back has become a problem position for Liverpool.
‘I am worried on the right side,’ Gerrard aded post-match.
‘I think the evidence of that is when you’ve got to put arguably your best player, [Dominik] Szoboszlai, at right back again. You saw that too many times last season.
‘The injury to Conor Bradley is hurting Liverpool, he’s their best right-back. Obviously, Trent moving on, we’ve spoken about that on numerous occasions.
‘It wouldn’t surprise me if we try to do something [sing a player] in that position.’
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