Konaté and Van Dijk vs Brobbey
It’s fair to say that Brobbey was absolutely marshalled out of the game by Liverpool’s centre-halves yesterday. He’s often a huge source of attacking intent and influence
for the team but wasn’t able to get a foothold in the game against two players in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté who neutralised his main qualities in a way we hadn’t seen up until now. Van Dijk may get more of the headlines due to his decisive goal but Konaté’s display was absolutely immense throughout. The block he made for Brobbey’s shot in the first half and the tackle he managed as Brobbey looked to get free in the box were examples of elite defending from a player who has struggled massively at points this year. It’s a shame that he decided that he wanted to elevate his levels to unplayable heights when visiting the Stadium of Light but sometimes that’s just what top players do.
I thought that Brobbey’s overall performance was still at a reasonable level yesterday which further highlights how impressive the two big lumps at the heart of Liverpool’s defence were. Van Dijk was imperious in the air at both ends of the pitch, too, resulting in the aforementioned winner — something which we haven’t seen too much this year, especially when Ballard is on the pitch. I believe that VVD is the only player in the league to outperform Ballard on aerial statistics this season and he demonstrated that prowess fully.
A real lack of attacking quality
I think the quality on the pitch was sorely lacking from a Sunderland perspective yesterday, unfortunately. The lads put a lot of heart and effort into the performance overall but the gulf in quality was evident on the night, with Liverpool’s players frankly able to outplay ours in nearly every position. I don’t think that the performance deserves outright criticism but I do think that it was a disappointment to not push Liverpool any further than we did. It seemed like a very easy night for them, which is not something many of our opponents would be used to thinking this season, especially after coming to the SoL. As always, Enzo was at the heart of anything positive that we managed to knit together, and I felt that the performance was generally solid for a good portion of the game without ever looking threatening.
There was a real lack of incisiveness about the lads’ play across the 90 yesterday wherein opportunities to try an ambitious flick or touch, or simply to try a more difficult pass through the lines were consistently turned down in favour of playing the safe option around our own defence without much intent or endeavour. It’s something we’ve seen often in away performances recently but it seemed to seep into our home performance yesterday — to sum it up: flat.
The unbeaten record falls to the reds
Well, there it goes. It was a record that we can all be immensely proud of the lads for achieving and it’s something we could never have expected to have at this stage of the season. The team had earned that record through a lot of hard work and graft, representing the badge like we’d hoped a team would for years and years. The fact that the streak is over doesn’t make us a bad team and doesn’t mean that the Stadium of Light will be an easy place for teams to come in the future — I have a lot of faith that our home form can drive us throughout the rest of the campaign.
It’s worth remembering that Liverpool are the reigning champions of the league and while they haven’t been at their scintillating best throughout the entire season, they showed that they can still be excellent on their day.
Angulo impresses on his debut
One positive coming out of the defeat was the debut of our newest tricky winger in Nilson Angulo. Starting in what seems to be his favoured position off the left, he offered much more in a 1v1 sense than I think any other winger has this season. He’s clearly got quick feet but also has a raw power and athleticism which both impressed me in the moment and makes me think that he could definitely have a great impact going forward. There were multiple occasions where Angulo was doubled up on and through his own feints and movement made it into a promising move, often taking the second defender out of the equation while at it.
Another aspect of Angulo’s play which was highlighted ahead of his arrival was his defensive work rate which was on display tonight. Despite Liverpool’s ability to carve open good opportunities concerningly easily across the night, Angulo found himself helping out Reinildo a lot on that left-hand side against Salah, helping to double up in defence and blocking crosses into the box. It’s something that Régis will clearly have enjoyed and a trait which will certainly improve his chances of keeping his place in the starting XI.
Missing Xhaka’s influence
It’s not something I like to dwell on too much, but Xhaka’s influence was sorely missed yesterday. That lack of drive and intensity going into the latter stages yesterday was not seen while he was on the pitch throughout a season filled with comebacks at home. Oftentimes, Xhaka is at the core of that late push — a mentality that is difficult to replicate and drum up in his absence. Our entire system, especially when chasing a game, relies on Xhaka playing that pivot role perfectly as we sweep from left to right in order to find a punishing gap. The second balls were lost constantly yesterday, and it meant we just couldn’t build up an imposing momentum against Liverpool, who sat in safely before managing the quick and threatening counters that we couldn’t when they had dominated us.
It seems like Granit will be out for around another three weeks and with him likely needing to rebuild his fitness, we’ll have to find a way to regain that intensity when finding ourselves behind.
Alderete injury concerns
Something that may have gone slightly under the radar towards the end of the game was Alderete’s injury and subsequent replacement by Geertruida. He is our only left-sided centre-half, providing a hugely important balance to our play. We don’t know the extent of the injury so I’m hoping that it was something of a precautionary move to take him off (something we saw with Sadiki at the weekend), but it’s something to keep an eye on over the next few days.
