Liverpool vs Sunderland: Post Match Reaction

After two consecutive victories many Liverpool fans, including myself, couldn’t be blamed for going into this game expecting the Reds to take the spoils. That wasn’t exactly what happened as a lacklustre Liverpool put on a dismal performance resulting in a stalemate with Sunderland and were frankly lucky to keep a clean sheet in the end.

Steven Gerrard was originally rested today with Rodgers looking ahead to Liverpool’s Champions League make-or-break fixture against Basel next week which saw former Sunderland player Henderson captain the Reds.

Source: liverpoolfc.com

Just like against Stoke, Liverpool found it difficult in the midfield and were at times dominated. There were flashes of hope though as Raheem Sterling and Phillipe Coutinho made a few attempts to unlock the Sunderland midfield and defence but to no avail.

I was flabbergasted to see Liverpool spend the majority of the game whipping the ball into box toward the head of Rickie Lambert, especially when Costel Pantilimon stands at 6’ 8” and found it easy to cut out a lot of the attempts to find an opportunity to score for Liverpool.

From the beginning of this season Liverpool fans have become custom to watching their team crumble in defence and concede a goal or several. Mignolet looked unfashionably sharp today but there were positions he was put in that he really shouldn’t have. As has been the trend this season Liverpool have found it immensely difficult defending from corners and today was no exception.

One particular moment in the second half saw Conor Wickham with at least 5 yards of space in the Liverpool box after Martin Skrtel headed the ball away from the Liverpool goal. This is unacceptable, Glen Johnson was nowhere to be seen and Kolo Toure (although, to be fair, he did try his best to get back and stand in Wickham’s way) gifted Wickham that space. Luckily for Mignolet, he fired the ball into the side-netting.

With Liverpool lacking a clinical nature, Steven Gerrard was brought on in an attempt to squeeze a goal out of his team like he did against Stoke when Johnson scored a late winner. Liverpool did look a lot more dangerous with the captain on the field but were still unable to unlock the Sunderland defence. Maybe on another day it could have been a different story.

One thing that has been bothering me is Rodgers reluctance to feature Fabio Borini at all. Today screamed for a more creative striker than Lambert and Lord behold he was the only striker selected for today’s squad.

With Daniel Sturridge injured and Mario Balotelli both injured and misfiring, you need to have an alternative on the bench for when your starting striker isn’t up to scratch. Lambert has looked sharp of recent but Rodgers can’t rely on that style of play to work each week. We need an effective “Plan B” when it comes to attack.

Lazar Markovic linked up well when he came on and created a couple chances for Liverpool and himself but was ultimately unable to help the Reds get the crucial goal they needed and the fans craved.

Too weak today. We are Liverpool and this is Anfield. No disrespect to Sunderland, they held their own, but we can’t be dropping points against teams of their calibre at home and expect to compete at the highest level. Fair enough a one-off but we’ve had far too many of those this season.