The Reds made the tricky trip to the Northeast to face Sunderland. Arne Slot’s men beat the newly promoted side 1-0 at the Stadium of Light, which has not seen a defeat all season, with Virgil van Dijk’s goal the difference between the two teams, ending Sunderland’s unbeaten home run.
It was a controlled performance from Liverpool and with more than enough chances created to win the game even more comfortably, as they played with far more impetus than what they produced against Man City.
As with most of the season LFC did not produce the perfect performance in Wednesday’s match and here are some things they got right and what could have been improved on
Higher Tempo
Most of the attacks Liverpool had, came from fast, free-flowing football, with Florian Wirtz often at the heart of it.
It was refreshing to see such a dynamic style of play from the Reds, and it was helped massively by the way Sunderland played out and didn’t look to sit back and defend, quite the difference from other sides who have come up against Slot’s side this season.Â
Another positive aspect of the higher tempo, was the lack of possession that van Dijk and Konate had, both are capable ball playing defenders, but the less they touch the ball, the more the ball is with the more creative and attacking players.Â
As mentioned prior, the higher tempo allowed for more goal scoring chances for the Reds,
Wirtz hit the post and had a long shot saved, Ekitike should have scored a header, similar to his miss against City and Salah also saw a volley bounce past the post.
Starting XI
Going into this match there were calls for a shakeup in the lineup, Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah were all names that had been mentioned all over social media to be dropped.
Apart from Mac Allister, both Salah and Gakpo failed to quiet these shouts from fans.Â
Gakpo was extremely ineffective, constantly looking one dimensional (Cutting inside from wider areas) and often slowing attacks or not playing an open pass.
Salah did provide the corner for van Dijk’s goal, but Liverpool are not paying the Egyptian £350k+ to be good at set pieces.
Slot needs more from his trusted wingers, however he also needs to recognize their poor form and give the opportunities to the squad players (Chiesa and Ngumoha), who will be relishing the chance to stake a claim in the starting XI.
Another selection that left many perplexed was Wataru Endo’s inclusion in the game, especially considering Joe Gomez’s return to the matchday squad.
The Japan captain made his first start of the season, looking like he was lacking some match sharpness at times.
Unfortunately for LFC and Wataru, the midfielder left the field on a stretcher, after a gruesome landing on his left ankle, while clearing a dangerous cross. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for Wata.
Set-pieces
 A much-maligned feature of this season has been the over reliance from many teams on set-pieces, especially the league leaders.
The two corner takers for Liverpool were the two aforementioned wingers who have been heavily criticized, Salah and Gakpo.
The one part of both of their games that did show promise was their deliveries from corners as they were consistently dropping in the centre of the goal and often landing in the six-yard-box, ready for van Dijk, Konate, etc., to attack.
Although the attacking set-pieces were fantastic and caused problems, it was the opposite for LFC’S defensive set-pieces.
They had control in almost every delivery and never looked to be troubled by a competent aerial force that Sunderland possess.Â
Overall it was a positive performance and an incredibly needed victory for the Reds after Chelsea and Man Utd both dropped points on Tuesday night.
This is the type of performance that, when looked back upon, is one that shows the quality in attack, but also the strength of this defensive unit, that has gone missing plenty of times this season.