Examining what Liverpool got right and wrong versus Sunderland

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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 TempoMost of the attacks Liverpool had, came from fast, free-flowing football, with Florian Wirtz often at the heart of it. 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.

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.Sunderland v Liverpool - Premier League | Liverpool FC/GettyImagesStarting XIGoing 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. Salah did provide the corner for van Dijk’s goal, but Liverpool are not paying the Egyptian £350k+ to be good at set pieces.

Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery for Wata.FBL-ENG-PR-SUNDERLAND-LIVERPOOL | ANDY BUCHANAN/GettyImagesSet-pieces A much-maligned feature of this season has been the over reliance from many teams on set-pieces, especially the league leaders. 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.