Liverpool had completely dominated Sunderland for the entire game and it was just about verging on nail-biting time when Divock Origi popped up and provided the goods with the breakthrough goal in the 75th minute.
The phrase ‘one of those days’ again threatened to stain numerous post-match reports with Sunderland’s packed defence somehow managing to keep our attack at bay for most of the match.
There was no way that Jurgen Klopp was going to let us draw this game, though, and his faith was eventually supported when the Reds pulled together to find two late second half goals.
James Milner allowed a tense Anfield crowd to breathe again in added time, when he scored from the penalty spot to make it 2-0.
Liverpool’s makeshift left-back has hailed the team for remaining composed when things weren’t quite going to plan.
He told Liverpoolfc.com: “Everyone was getting frustrated, the crowd as well, and you don’t blame them when teams come and sit back.”
“You just have to believe and stay patient and keep doing the right things and don’t start moving away from the gameplan because things aren’t going our way.”
“We kept plugging away and we were solid at the back, because they’re a handful the two up front.”
“It’s a different performance to what we’ve had when we’ve scored early and scored a few goals.”
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Yesterday’s win marked even more progress. We proved we have what it takes to overcome a team with no ambition to do anything but sit back and defend for 90 minutes.
We are going to come up against more teams that match Sunderland’s tactics against us, which is why we have to be ready to win in the same way that we did on Saturday.