Regis Le Bris claims Sunderland players were ‘surprised’ by Liverpool tactic after Anfield draw

Regis Le Bris admits his Sunderland players were ‘surprised’ by Liverpool’s lack of pressing in their 1-1 draw at Anfield on Wednesday night.

After a goalless first half, Chemsdine Talbi put Sunderland ahead in the 67th minute after his strike took a flick off Virgil van Dijk, who had given the ball away moments before the goal.

Liverpool equalised through neat individual play from Florian Wirtz, whose effort was deflected into the net by Nordi Mukiele with nine minutes remaining.

The draw leaves Liverpool eighth in the Premier League and Slot will now face further questions over his side’s lack of cutting edge at Anfield.

‘We had this opportunity to score the second goal but it’s a good result for both teams,’ Le Bris said.

‘We started well, the first half was interesting with and without the ball. Probably we didn’t believe enough that it was possible to score and we did it in the beginning of the second half.

‘I think we were even a bit surprised to have time and space to build up the play and probably they didn’t expect to be at that level.

‘We spoke about this final third and the way it was possible to disturb their back line. We expected Salah as well to come on the pitch and to change a bit the dynamics, so we are prepared.’

Arne Slot, meanwhile, believes Liverpool have given opponents confidence to attack at Anfield due to their poor run of form this season.

When asked if Anfield is losing its fear factor, Slot replied: ‘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.’

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