The most damning comment regarding Liverpool’s malaise came from the visiting manager.
“We were a bit surprised to have time and space to play,” Regis Le Bris told reporters following Sunderland’s 1-1 draw at Anfield.
They really should not have been caught off guard, given the similar luxuries afforded to Nottingham Forest and PSV on their recent trips to Merseyside.
Last season, Anfield was a fortress. Arne Slot’s side won 14, drew four, and lost only once in their 19 league games on home turf en route to winning the Premier League title. Visitors were frequently outworked and outclassed.
That fear factor has been well and truly lost. Liverpool have failed to win three successive matches in all competitions at Anfield for the first time since the Covid pandemic, when matches were played behind closed doors during the 2020-21 campaign.
This is a venue where the champions’ vulnerabilities are being brutally laid bare in front of 60,000 fans. Opponents are being given all kinds of encouragement. Rather than being intent on damage limitation, they arrive smelling blood.
“It’s clear that teams that play us now think they can get a result,” said Slot. “And not only think, it has been shown this season. Even in the games we’ve won, we’ve fuelled the confidence for other teams like: ‘Hmm, something is possible’.”
With just four wins from seven home league games, Liverpool have dropped more points at Anfield this season than they did throughout 2024-25.
Hopes that Sunday’s win away to West Ham United represented a turning point for Slot’s side were dashed as they regressed and added another error-strewn, erratic performance to their growing collection.
Only the nifty footwork of Florian Wirtz, followed by a big deflection off defender Nordi Mukiele, which ensured it went down as an own goal, enabled Liverpool to salvage a point and avoid another humiliating setback.
But a first draw of the season will do little to ease the pressure on Slot, given it is now just four wins out of the last 14 games in all competitions and only seven points out of a possible 27. Remarkably, they stand just two points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.
The pressure is ramping up on Arne Slot (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
The madness of stoppage time summed up Liverpool’s plight. No structure, no shape. Their desperation to try to find a winner was such that they left themselves hopelessly exposed to a counter-attack when Robin Roefs claimed Ibrahima Konate’s tame header.
The Dutch goalkeeper’s superb long ball sent Wilson Isidor scampering clear in the 94th minute. Hearts were in mouths as he rounded Alisson, but substitute Federico Chiesa got back to clear the goalbound shot.
“I looked up and saw a player of theirs completely free at the halfway line,” Slot said. “The good thing from Fede was that he could have thought: ‘Ah, it’s nothing for me to do anymore, I’m so far away from the situation’, but he kept sprinting. A draw was the minimum we deserved.
“I don’t completely agree with you that they grew into the game because throughout the second half, there was only one team that had the ball and only one team that was playing in one half.”
Slot was guilty of sugarcoating. Liverpool may have had 68 per cent possession, but they did precious little with it. Of their 23 shots, just four of them were on target. Sunderland hit the woodwork twice and had six shots on target. This was no heroic backs-to-the-wall effort from the newly promoted side.
You can sense the growing restlessness inside Anfield over how this season has so quickly unravelled, and there is no doubt that anxiety and frustration in the stands transmits to the players. The only fear resides in the home dressing room, with too many inhibited rather than inspired by their surroundings. That keeps manifesting itself in glaring mistakes and wretched decision-making.
Alexander Isak struggled once again (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
Here was proof, if any was needed, that Liverpool’s problems run much deeper than whether Mohamed Salah deserves to start wide on the right. Benched for back-to-back top-flight matches for the first time in his Anfield career, the Egypt forward sat and watched with a snood pulled over his face as the hosts played with an alarming lack of urgency and fluency in the first half.
Their pressing was non-existent, the passing painfully slow and predictable. Whatever the plan was, it did not work as they created little. The introduction of Salah for the ineffective Cody Gakpo for the second half provided an attacking outlet, but in other areas, they were lacking.
Alexander Isak was miles off it and had just 14 touches in 86 minutes. It was baffling that Hugo Ekitike and Chiesa had to wait so long to be brought off the bench.
Slot described Sunderland’s goal as “unlucky” after a deflection off Virgil van Dijk took Chemsdine Talbi’s strike beyond Alisson. But it was avoidable given the Liverpool captain had relinquished possession cheaply and then been slow to close down the shot. Van Dijk redeemed himself to a degree with a crucial defensive header to thwart Dan Ballard late on.
Positives on the night were in short supply, but the sight of Liverpool earning their first point from a losing position since May at least showed some fight. Wirtz’s long wait for a goal goes on, but it was another significant contribution from the Germany international.
The fact that Liverpool came closer to conceding again rather than securing victory during a frenetic finale sums up where they are at. Anfield has become far too welcoming to visitors.
