Liverpool’s Slide Worsens – Five Things We Learnt From the Sunderland Stalemate! | OneFootball

Liverpool avoided catastrophe, but only just. Federico Chiesa’s 94th-minute goal-line clearance – a moment that provoked a celebration more suited to a last-minute winner – told its own story. The Premier League champions were seconds away from an unthinkable defeat to newly promoted Sunderland. The point they salvaged was less a platform to build from and more a stay of execution for a season still sliding in the wrong direction.

Sunderland, vibrant and direct under Régis Le Bris, will look back with frustration rather than pride. They pressed Liverpool into errors, won duels all over midfield, and created the clearer chances. If not for Chiesa’s astonishing recovery run and block to deny Wilson Isidor at the death, Anfield’s inquest would have been merciless.

Here are the five things we learnt from a night that captured Liverpool’s growing fragility and Sunderland’s rapid adjustment to top-flight football.

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1. Liverpool’s structural issues are now chronic, not circumstantial

Arne Slot’s post-match comments attempted to frame the draw as a reasonable outcome. But Liverpool’s problems were not those of a side adjusting to a bad day – they were the symptoms of a team losing its identity.

For the 11th time in 14 matches, Liverpool conceded first. Their response lacked intensity, tempo and clarity. Much like their defeats to PSV and recent domestic reverses, the champions were overrun in central areas and repeatedly exposed in defensive transitions. Sunderland’s early control was not a surprise; it was a pattern repeating.

Virgil van Dijk’s role in the opening goal – a heavy touch followed by a misclearance directly to Enzo Le Fée – encapsulated Liverpool’s hesitancy. Talbi’s deflected strike owed something to luck, but the space he was afforded to shoot reflected Liverpool’s looseness out of possession.

This is no longer the Liverpool who suffocate opponents. They have become a side whose first mistake is followed quickly by a second, and sides far weaker on paper are growing brave enough to pursue those moments.

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2. Sunderland showed Premier League maturity far beyond their experience

Promoted sides are not supposed to come to Anfield and dictate the rhythm of a game. Sunderland did exactly that for long stretches.

Their front line, led by Brian Brobbey, caused immediate discomfort for Konaté and Van Dijk. Brobbey’s mobility and strength allowed Sunderland to bypass Liverpool’s first press and bring midfield runners into play, with Le Fée and Sadiki both excellent at arriving at pace.

The visitors’ confidence was evident in their shot selection:

Far from overawed, Sunderland looked like the side with a clearer plan, sharper structure and better emotional control. “We are learning fast,” said Le Bris. The evidence suggested they already have.

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3. Wirtz was Liverpool’s only consistent threat – but even he needed luck

Florian Wirtz’s adaptation to the Premier League has required patience, but this was the clearest sign yet of what he brings. He drifted intelligently into pockets, linked well with Szoboszlai and forced Sunderland to collapse their shape whenever he received the ball between the lines.

His equaliser – officially an own goal after flicking off Mukiele – was a reward for his persistence. Twice earlier he had been denied: once by Roefs at point-blank range, once by a desperate Sunderland block.

What Liverpool lacked was supporting movement. Alexander Isak saw little of the ball. Gakpo was anonymous before his withdrawal. Salah, introduced at half-time, carried urgency but not incision. Without Wirtz’s dribbling ability and willingness to force actions inside the box, Liverpool’s attacking play would have been sterile.

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4. Slot’s Salah decision is becoming unavoidable

Starting Salah on the bench again – for the second successive league match, something unprecedented in his Liverpool career – was the managerial equivalent of juggling lit matches: bold when it works, unforgiving when it doesn’t.

Slot’s rationale was continuity after West Ham, but Liverpool clearly lacked vertical threat, unpredictability and a reference point in the right half-space. Salah’s introduction corrected their structure, but by then Sunderland were entrenched, compact and emboldened.

The longer this pattern continues – Liverpool needing Salah to salvage rhythm rather than define it from the start – the more the spotlight will fall on Slot’s selection choices. In a delicate period of the season, pragmatism may take precedence over theory.

: Liverpool’s Slide Worsens – Five Things We Learnt From the Sunderland Stalemate!

5. Chiesa’s late block papers over cracks that are widening

Federico Chiesa did not celebrate a goal. He celebrated a rescue act – one that symbolised the desperation of a team who have lost control of their own performances.

His 90-yard recovery run, the anticipation, the timing on the line: it was elite forward play in reverse. But it also reinforced how vulnerable Liverpool were, even with a late surge of possession. Sunderland scored once, hit the woodwork, and created the game’s final – and clearest – chance.

Liverpool, champions a few months ago, were saved by a moment of individual will rather than collective assurance. Slot described the draw as “the minimum we deserved”. Few inside Anfield would agree.

The late block bought Liverpool time. It did not solve their problems.

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Final Word

This was less a stumble than another marker of where Liverpool currently stand: disjointed, error-prone and reliant on isolated moments rather than a functioning structure. Sunderland, by contrast, left with belief enhanced, their Premier League learning curve accelerating with every match.

The draw keeps Liverpool afloat, but the trajectory remains troubling. In a season that has already veered into unfamiliar territory, Anfield witnessed another night that demanded more questions than it answered.