See everything the head coach said following the final whistle below.
On the importance of Federico Chiesa’s goal-saving intervention from Wilson Isidor in stoppage time…
Yeah, I think in the final minutes of the game we were close, in my opinion, to making the 2-1 because we had a few set-pieces, were constantly around their box. They couldn’t actually come out of that situation anymore. But then from one of those set-pieces, from the second phase we brought the ball in and their goalkeeper caught the ball, I looked up and I saw a player of theirs completely free at the halfway line. 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 and Ali [Alisson Becker] moved him to the outside, and as a result of that Fede could clear the ball off the line, which was I think the minimum we deserved tonight and the minimum his effort deserved as well. I mean with that, that the draw was the minimum we deserved tonight.
On whether he was pleased or frustrated with Liverpool’s performance…
A bit of both. So, I knew before the game, when you play Sunderland, from the 14 games they have played now they have only conceded four times more than one goal, and in these four games they’ve only conceded two. So, it’s a hard team to score against, it’s a hard team to create your chances against, because they either go really aggressive in a high press or they have 11 players – 10 outfield players and a goalkeeper – who defend their box with their lives. That’s why it’s so difficult to create. So, in that aspect, I was hoping for more – although I knew how difficult it is to create against them.
Again, we’ve hardly conceded. The first big chance of them – I don’t count the shot that hit the bar because that was not a chance – but the first serious chance was from a set-piece [and a header] that hit the post. And then their goal is, in my opinion, not even a chance. If that is a chance, we’ve probably had 20 chances tonight. But, unfortunately, a deflection led to going 1-0 down. Then, recently in our games we’ve found it really hard to get the equaliser, although we had our chances every time. Today, we had a little bit of luck with scoring the 1-1 because that was also a deflection. For me, different, because that’s a shot from eight, nine, 10 yards, so that’s at least a serious chance. Where a shot from 20 yards isn’t a serious chance – an opportunity but not a serious chance. So, a bit of both.
On Sunderland ‘growing in confidence as the second half went on’ and if Anfield is losing any of its ‘fear factor’…
No, not Anfield. For sure. But it’s clear that teams that play us now think they can get a result. Not only think, because that has been shown this season. And even in the games we’ve won, they also fuelled the confidence for other teams like, ‘Hmm, something is possible’ because the wins we had at the beginning of the season weren’t easy ones as well. I don’t completely agree with you that they grew into the game because I think throughout the whole second half there was only one team that had the ball and only one team that was playing on one half. But yeah, if they got a free-kick off the referee or they had a goal-kick, they could bring it to our half with a long ball. And we had to defend three or four times a set-piece and a throw-in and a corner kick. And of course, that is a danger with them because they have shown this season that they are a threat in set-pieces. The good thing for us is we didn’t concede from a set-piece. Maybe as a result, we got at least a point.
