Final Thoughts: Pressure Ramps Up on Arne Slot as Liverpool Drop More Points to Sunderland | OneFootball

Liverpool 1 – 1 Sunderland – Premier League Postmortem

After the muted optimism carried over from the West Ham win, Liverpool returned to Anfield needing far more than three points—they needed conviction, identity, and evidence that Arne Slot still held the steering wheel of a season sliding rapidly out of control. Instead, the 1–1 draw with Sunderland delivered none of that. What unfolded was another laboured, disjointed, joyless 90 minutes in which Liverpool looked lost, uninspired, and increasingly unconvinced by the man tasked with leading them.

The performance lacked structure, urgency, tactical clarity, and—most worryingly—belief. When a newly promoted side can arrive at Anfield and leave with a point while barely needing to leave third gear, it says far more about the hosts than the visitors. This Liverpool side looks hollowed out, disconnected, and directionless. And the signs that the players have emotionally and tactically detached from their manager grow louder with each passing fixture.

The Starting Eleven

Liverpool XI

• GK – Alisson Becker

• RB – Joe Gomez

• CB – Ibrahima Konaté

• CB – Virgil van Dijk (c)

• LB – Andy Robertson

• CM – Alexis Mac Allister

• CM – Ryan Gravenberch

• CM – Dominik Szoboszlai

• RW – Florian Wirtz

• CF – Alexander Isak

• LW – Cody Gakpo

Substitutes

Mohamed Salah → Cody Gakpo (46’)

Curtis Jones → Joe Gomez (65’)

Hugo Ekitike → Alexis Mac Allister (74’)

Federico Chiesa → Alexander Isak (86’)

Goals

Liverpool 0–1 Sunderland – Chemsdine Talbi (Enzo Le Fée) – 67’

Liverpool 1–1 Sunderland – Nordi Mukiele (Own Goal) – 81’

Match Statistics

• Possession – Liverpool 68% | Sunderland 32%

• XG – Liverpool 1.46 | Sunderland 0.42

• Total Shots – Liverpool 23 | Sunderland 9

• Fouls – Liverpool 10 | Sunderland 5

• Corners – Liverpool 7 | Sunderland 3

• Saves – Liverpool 4 | Sunderland 4

First Half

An Anfield crowd hoping for intensity instead witnessed a familiar lethargy. Liverpool dominated the ball yet did nothing meaningful with it, cycling possession with no penetration, no coordinated movement, and no visible plan. Florian Wirtz worked tirelessly to inject life into the game, but the supporting cast lagged behind. Gakpo drifted, Gravenberch played within himself, and Mac Allister struggled again to offer any tempo-setting influence.

It was football without conviction—an echo of a team that once thrived on chaos and confidence, now reduced to sterile possession and hesitant patterns. Sunderland grew comfortable, then confident, as Liverpool failed to impose itself in any meaningful way.

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Second Half

The restart brought more of the same structural confusion and emotional flatness. When Sunderland took the lead through Talbi, it felt inevitable rather than shocking—Liverpool had been inviting danger with loose pressing, slow transitions, and a complete lack of defensive accountability.

Florian Wirtz, once again, dragged Liverpool back into the contest with a moment of quality that forced the equaliser. His influence grows clearer every week—and more isolated. Meanwhile, Slot’s in-game management continued to baffle.

Federico Chiesa, one of the club’s most explosive players, remains criminally underused.

His lung-busting defensive recovery in the dying minutes was the kind of commitment Liverpool sorely misses—and it begs the question: why is he not starting? Why is he barely playing?

The answer, increasingly, circles back to one man.

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Final Thoughts

This was another performance that screamed for change. Not subtle evolution—change.

Liverpool is stuck, stagnant, and visibly unconvinced by their manager’s plan. The football is predictable. The energy is low. The conviction is gone. And the players’ body language speaks louder than any press conference soundbite.

Arne Slot has lost the team.

Whether through resignation or dismissal, Liverpool needs a new voice, a new direction, and a reset before the season collapses entirely. The evidence is overwhelming: the manager must go.

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Steven Smith’s Score Prediction:

Liverpool 3 – 1 Sunderland