LIVERPOOL, England, Dec 3 (Reuters) - While Liverpool managed to salvage a point against Sunderland despite their lethargic performance in a 1-1 Premier League draw on Wednesday, the match felt like a setback after the champions' encouraging 2-0 victory over West Ham United last weekend.
Florian Wirtz's deflected shot in the 81st minute spared Liverpool's blushes of what would have been a dreadful 10th defeat in their last 14 games across all competitions in a season of one step forward, several steps back for Arne Slot's side.
"Far too many times this season we don't concede a lot of chances but the ones that we do go in," a stony-faced Slot told the BBC. "We weren't lucky enough to get the win over the line, but in recent weeks we would have lost this game so that is a positive."
Slot pointed to a recurring issue that continues to haunt the champions: a lack of cutting edge.
"We are already 14 games in now and we haven't been able to score enough from open play or from set pieces," he said.
The Dutchman's frustration underlined a worrying trend for Liverpool, who dominated possession and whose completed passes were more than double that of Sunderland, but rarely threatened the visitors' goal until Wirtz's deflected strike.
"Bit similar as in the weekend (against West Ham), a game where we didn't concede a lot and we didn't create a lot," Slot told Sky Sports. "And today of course very unlucky with the goal we conceded. A deflection that can go anywhere but unfortunately it goes in.
"We tried everything to make the winner but in the end we were lucky as well because they went one-on-one with (goalkeeper) Alisson."
Sunderland's travelling fans roared at what they thought would be the winner when Wilson Isidor raced through on goal and around Alisson in added time, but his shot was cleared off the line by Federico Chiesa.
"That's what you want a player to do, give everything in a situation," Slot said of Chiesa's clearance. "Just keep running and cleared the ball off the line. Another game where we scored less than we could've scored and the opponent were good with their chances."
(Reporting by Lori EwingEditing by Toby Davis)
