Talking Points: What Went Wrong For Sunderland vs Liverpool?

It’s fair to say that Brobbey was absolutely marshalled out of the game by Liverpool’s centre-halves yesterday. He’s often a huge source of attacking intent and influence for the team but wasn’t able to get a foothold in the game against two players in Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté who neutralised his main qualities in a way we hadn’t seen up until now. Van Dijk may get more of the headlines due to his decisive goal but Konaté’s display was absolutely immense throughout. The block he made for Brobbey’s shot in the first half and the tackle he managed as Brobbey looked to get free in the box were examples of elite defending from a player who has struggled massively at points this year. It’s a shame that he decided that he wanted to elevate his levels to unplayable heights when visiting the Stadium of Light but sometimes that’s just what top players do.

 I thought that Brobbey’s overall performance was still at a reasonable level yesterday which further highlights how impressive the two big lumps at the heart of Liverpool’s defence were. Van Dijk was imperious in the air at both ends of the pitch, too, resulting in the aforementioned winner — something which we haven’t seen too much this year, especially when Ballard is on the pitch. I believe that VVD is the only player in the league to outperform Ballard on aerial statistics this season and he demonstrated that prowess fully.