Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Liverpool 1 Sunderland 1 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at Anfield…
YOU CAN’T THROW away 45 minutes at home.
Well, you can, Liverpool did. But if you do and then don’t win then you’ll find yourself without a leg to stand on.
That currently is Liverpool at Anfield. The three positives:
- Florian Wirtz and Florian Wirtz sort of scoring his first goal.
- They conceded first and did not lose.
No.2 matters. It genuinely does. It is important. A football team needs to be able to show resilience and have proof of concept of that resilience. That could just be a building block, albeit a tiny one, one of those one bump Lego pieces which is of use but which hurts like hell when you stand on it.
Today hurt like hell when standing on it. It may well be a step forward – a step onto the painful tiny lego in the dark but possibly forward nonetheless.
No.1 matters too. You get to see in the first-half when Wirtz wiggles his hips, is at the byline to execute a telling cutback, precisely how match-winning he can be. But you also get to see, by virtue of that cutback not being perfect, the shortcoming of the strategy that builds it around one genius, the shortcoming of being an attacker light at home too.
The shape left a lot to be desired first-half at home, at Anfield. Again, go away and write a half off – fine. It happens and it can work. But at home? At Anfield? There has to be an outball for the right-back who is a centre-back. There has to be players looking to join play together rather than putting it on Sunderland’s toes.
Unless you win. As ever, everything can work for you if you win and this is the tightrope every manager walks. There are a ton of ways to play at home and not win – my god we have explored them – but being meek for 45 is one of the worst.
No one fills you with confidence, no one has confidence and it may be that confidence needs to be rebuilt. Maybe that takes days like today.
But it left the dullest ache.
Second-half the manager is like a man possessed on the sidelines. He plays ballboy and harangues the officials and hectors everyone. I love it. Great. Yes. Then pick a team that shows that energy from the first minute. Pick a team which has a plan to score a goal from the first minute. Pick a Liverpool team, show a Liverpool approach.
Loads of people may have liked the unchanged shape but there is a reason why good sides don’t set up like this from the start at home.
Sunderland deserve a load of credit for their focus and approach and their desire to slow the game and kill it. Stuart Atwell is their eager accomplice as he falls for every trick in the book. They play their role to perfection including being exhausted with ten to go but fighting for their lives and getting the breakaway. I like them and watching players break their necks to prevent corners will never not be endearing.
Sunderland though want a point and anything more is a bonus. They are a newly promoted side and Liverpool are the Champions. And Liverpool are throwing away 45 minutes at home. Sunderland haven’t been doing that.
Positive 3:
They did not lose.
But you cannot lose if you do not play. Maybe playing properly, playing for 90 minutes is impossible at the moment. Maybe we have to acknowledge that and go from there. Maybe the direction of travel for the whole of football is less and less playing and more and more pre-arranged plays.
It’s been a bleak watch at times this season between the refereeing and the set-piece drama but I will always want Liverpool to grab games by the throat. Always did. Always will.
You cannot lose if you do not play. But you cannot feel good if you do not play.
I feel bad.
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