After playing out a dreadfully boring scoreless draw only five weeks ago at Anfield, you’ll excuse me if I’m a bit apprehensive of our chances going into this weekend’s trip to the Stadium of Light.
After signs pointed to something resembling a resurgence for Liverpool a few weeks back, our forward momentum has slowed somewhat with a close fought draw with Leicester City and a narrow 2-1 victory over League Two side AFC Wimbledon in the FA Cup making the seemingly inevitable sunrise of the Reds season look more like just another false dawn. While that might seem overly pessimistic, there is cause for hope coming firmly on the back of the fact that Sunderland hasn’t fared that much better recently — though that begs the question of whether this will give either side an opportunity to break of out their respective funks, or if it’ll just provide them with another chance to display their collective mediocrity.
And, maybe, I just need to shut up and smile more.
Although neither side has been lighting up the league as of late, both were able to successfully navigate the third round of the FA Cup earlier this week, with the Reds sneaking past the Dons and the Black Cats dispatching Championship side Leeds United by a similarly tight scoreline.
Fullback Patrick van Aanholt, who has missed their last 10-league outings through injury, bagged himself the only goal of the contest as the first half started to wind down to set up a meeting with either Fulham or Wolverhampton Wanderers in the fifth round. While this is sure to only add to Sunderland manager Gus Poyet’s fixture list meltdown, it did break up the doom and gloom that’s been enveloping the Stadium of Light as of late — and going into a meeting with a side that has top-four ambitions, that’s never a bad thing.
Liverpool is going to have to start picking up maximum points if they want to realize their goal of qualify for next season’s Champions League, but they struggled to assert anything even resembling the dominance they displayed against Swansea City against the Mackems last time out. A change in formation and tactics since then has seen Brendan Rodgers side recapture some of the verge that made them so deadly last year. The news that captain Lee Cattermole is a big doubt for the meeting, coupled with Jack Rodwell’s late fitness test, may put a slight bend on that narrative being repeated, though they did well to keep the Reds more creative elements under wraps last time with minimal help from either of them.
While I’d like to assure you that we won’t see a repeat of that this time around, I’m just not prepared to make that kind of promise. Adam Lallana, who has been instrumental in turning the tide, picked up a thigh injury in the draw with Leicester City and will spend the next month on the treatment table. Lazar Markovic or Steven Gerrard could come in to fill his absence, but with the Captain completing the whole 90-minutes and scoring a brace against Wimbledon midweek, the young Serbian attacker seems the more likely of the two to square off against Sunderland.
Regardless, the real quandary for Liverpool remains at the back with their defense still questionable throughout the 90-minutes. Former Black Cats ‘keeper Simon Mignolet returns to the town he once called his home only through injury to under-study Brad Jones and, if his performance against the Dons earlier in the week is any indication of his mental state, he remains the most fragile piece of what remains a brittle back-line — something Sunderland will surely look to exploit. If they can put a pair past Manchester City, who they only missed out on nicking a point from through the thinnest of margins, they can do it against us as well.
That being said, though much has been made about our ineffectiveness going forward against an admittedly well drilled Black Cats defense last time out, they didn’t exactly dazzle in front of the net at Anfield either — which brings me back my earlier point that this one could end up being a real stinker. Again. Wouldn’t that be a great way to follow-up drawing with the team on the bottom of the table and almost allowing a League Two side to force a replay in the cup?
Ok, I’ll shut up again.
-Steven
