How Do I Stop a Game I Played at a Given Point and Then Analyze Other Moves I Could Have Made?

I love the lichess.org website but I find it has many more tools to use than instructions on how to use them! (Sort of like buying a new Apple computer and there is a tiny slip of paper with a link. Anyway.) I played a close game yesterday with an evenly matched opponent .... I thought I had him after many moves, and even he was rooting for me to checkmate, but somehow it all eluded me, slipped away, then I made a blunder and ended up resigning.

Can someone provide a simple How To on getting to the crucial point, then saving the game (to what and how, exactly) so that I can examine alternative moves?

More broadly, could someone point me to some easily understood directions on how to use lichess to improve my games? I have managed to improve from below 1000 to about 1100 ... far, far to go.

And I thank you in advance.

Go to the analysis board, there you can play out different lines, for in depth analysis you can convert a game into a study. I recommend to turn off the engine to analyse and only check after you finished analysing. You can also request a computer analysis and use the 'Learn from your mistakes' to see, where you went wrong.

Your game history is stored in your profile. You can look at past games, and analyse them aswell there. There is also a button 'Chess insights' which gives you an overview about different statistics of your games.

Sorry but these instructions are not How To. It's like telling someone who can't drive "turn on the car and drive to Florida." Maybe this all sounds self-evident to you, but it does not to me. I need step by step, please! Nonetheless I thank you for trying to help.

Was this the game?

You can review all of your past games from your user profile.

And if you request a computer analysis, it will show you, the number of mistakes/blunders and so on, in the game.

(On a smartphone, but sure about computer) if you click on mistakes/blunder, it will jump to the first position, click again, and it will jump to the second position (and so on), and it allows you to move around with the pieces, so you can try a different move. (It also shows the engine's recommend move)

As QEDemonstrandum said, dont use the engine to much.

My strategy game analysis is:
1) mark important spots during the game (e.g. a position where you dont know what to do, if you missed a tactic, game shifts regarding advantages, transitions from early to middel to endgame)

2) right after the game write down everything you thought about on the specific moves

3) analyse certain positions you werent certain about, what move could be better?, what are the alternatives? (I prefer to do this after some time after the game passed)

4) use the engine to spot any blunders or tactics you missed before

I found this strategy a while ago somewhere on the internet and made some personal adaptions.

click on your name in top right corner-> profile -> games -> click on a game -> analysis board -> there u can make moves on your own turn on the computerengine and start a computer analyses of the whole game.

step by step tutorials take longer than just clicking around the website and find out about stuff yourself.

Thanks to those who responded here. Yes @NaturalBornTraveller that is the game .... not sure I could ever have pulled off the checkmate after all but I did find out how to examine the alternatives on the Analysis Board.

Kind regards to you all, Stay Safe,

George