Slot on drab Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland draw

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Slot on drab Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland draw  03/12/2025  anfield, Liverpool, UK

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00:00We've seen Federico Chies has been a very good substitute for the attack in terms of the season.

00:07I guess you're very grateful that you proved very good in defence at one moment at the end.

00:12Yeah, I think in the final minutes of the game we were close, in my opinion,

00:19to making the 2-1 because we had a few set-pieces.

00:22We were constantly around their box, they couldn't actually come out of that situation anymore.

00:29But then from one of the set-pieces, when we brought in the second phase,

00:32we brought the ball in and the goalkeeper catched the ball.

00:35I looked up and I saw a player of them completely free at the halfway line.

00:39The good thing was from Federico that he could have thought,

00:42it's nothing for me to do anymore, I'm so far away from the situation,

00:45but he kept sprinting and Ali moved him to the outside.

00:51As a result of that, Federico could clear the ball off the line,

00:55which was I think the minimum we deserved tonight,

00:59and the minimum his effort deserved as well.

01:02And I mean with that that the draw was the minimum we deserved tonight.

01:06In terms of the performance overall, were you pleased with it,

01:11or were you frustrated with the performance of it?

01:16A bit of both.

01:19I knew before the game when you played Sunderland,

01:22I think from the 14th game they played now,

01:25they've only conceded four times more than one goal,

01:27and in these four games they've only conceded two.

01:30So it's a hard team to score against,

01:33it's a hard team to create your chances against,

01:35because they either go really aggressive in a high press,

01:38or they have 11 players, 10 outfield players,

01:42and a goalkeeper who defend their box with their lives,

01:46and that's why it's so difficult to create.

01:49So in that aspect I was hoping for more,

01:53although I knew how difficult it is to create against them.

01:56I think again we've hardly conceded.

01:59The first big chance of them was,

02:01I don't count the shots that hit the bar because that was not a chance,

02:05but the first serious chance was from a set-piece that hit the post.

02:10And then their goal is, in my opinion, not even a chance.

02:14If that is a chance we've probably had 20 chances tonight.

02:17But unfortunately a deflection led to going 1-0 down,

02:21and then recently in our recent games we found it really hard to get the equaliser,

02:31although we had our chances every time.

02:33But today we had a little bit of luck with scoring the 1-1,

02:37because that was also deflection.

02:39For me different, because that's a shot from 8, 9, 10 yards,

02:42so that's at least a serious chance,

02:45where a shot from 20 yards isn't.

02:47A serious chance, an opportunity, but not a serious chance.

02:50So a bit of both.

02:52Lewis?

02:54Some of them seem to grow in confidence as the second half went on.

02:58Do you think that it's very much about a win here at Anfield?

03:02Do you think that Anfield is losing it sort of fear factor?

03:05No, not Anfield, for sure.

03:08But it's clear that teams that play us now think they can get a result,

03:14not only think, because that's been shown this season.

03:17And even in their games we've won,

03:20I think they've also refueled the confidence for other teams,

03:23like, hmm, there's something possible,

03:25but because the wins we had in the beginning of the season

03:27weren't easy ones as well.

03:29I don't completely agree with you that they grew into the game,

03:34because I think throughout the whole second half

03:36there was only one team that had the ball

03:38and only one team that was playing on one half.

03:41But yeah, if they got a free kick off the referee

03:44or they had a goal kick, they could bring it to our half

03:48with a long ball,

03:49and we had to defend three or four times,

03:51a set-piece and a throw-in and a corner kick.

03:55And of course that is a danger with them

04:00because they've shown this season that they are a threat in set-pieces.

04:04The good thing for us is we didn't concede from a set-piece,

04:07maybe as a result that we got at least a point.

04:10As well as you prepared for them and had seen their success,

04:15did they do anything that surprised you?

04:17No, they didn't do anything that surprised me, no.

04:21Like I said, we know that they can press really high

04:27and defend with 11 players around their box,

04:30and that is what many teams do in the Premier League,

04:34and that's the minimum you need to do,

04:37defend with 11 players,

04:39because this league has become so strong

04:41that it's very hard not to defend with 11 players.

04:45I think in the first instance when they have the ball free,

05:05on 30-35 yards away from your goal,

05:08it's smarter to take away the space because if you step out as a centre-back

05:12or in a different position, the other team tries to exploit that space.

05:16So first take away the space, but at a certain moment you move forward to the ball,

05:20which I think is what Virgil tried,

05:23and unlucky enough of a deflection,

05:28and I've seen so many deflected shots on the other hand,

05:31where one of them led to a goal as well.

05:35But yeah, we were again unlucky that from the few chances we've conceded again,

05:42we've conceded a goal.

05:44Do you have a last one?

05:47I was just thinking if you want to change it,

05:49I'm tired of seeing what it's not, but it's in a 3-1.

05:52Was it tactical or was Cody carrying anything?

05:54In my opinion, Cody struggled to dominate the 1v1s,

05:59and if you want to have any chance against, like I said,

06:05they were pressing high but also in multiple situations they were in a low block,

06:11then the way to score is quite simple.

06:13You need a moment of magic from a player,

06:16or you need a set-piece to score.

06:19I felt in the first half that Cody struggled to find that moment

06:24because it was hard for him to dominate the 1v1 that Orquette crosses in.

06:29So I thought that in the first half we played with Soboslai off the right,

06:35to be defensively strong enough not to concede as much as we did in the last few weeks.

06:40So I changed it to Mo on the right side

06:43and then played with a midfielder Florian Witts off the left.

06:46Like I said, we hardly conceded,

06:49but it was throughout the whole game difficult to create that moment of magic

06:54and from the set-pieces we had unfortunately.

06:56We were once close, I think it was Maka in the first half,

06:59who had the post from a set-piece, if I'm correct.

07:01But yeah, we had enough, especially in the end of the second half, but we didn't score.

07:09Thank you very much.

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