Liverpool drop points as Burnley battle to draw at Anfield

Liverpool’s inability to manage games cost them dearly again as they dropped points in a one-sided 1-1 draw at home to struggling Burnley, who have not won in 13 Premier League matches.

Even a virtuoso performance from Florian Wirtz, who put Liverpool ahead after Dominik Szoboszlai missed a penalty, could not dig them out of the hole they created for themselves after allowing Marcus Edwards to equalise with the visitors’ only shot on target in the 65th minute.

Arne Slot’s team have consistently struggled against the low block opponents have deployed against the defending Premier League champions and Burnley’s 5-4-1 – unsurprising considering they arrived having taken three points from the last 36 – was a classic example.

But this was not one of those occasions for the quick feet of Wirtz, whose specific skillset makes him ideal for picking holes in obdurate defences.

Nevertheless, 73 per cent possession and 32 shots, only 11 of which were on target, produced a solitary goal.

That would have been enough had they not lost confidence at the first sign of the Clarets pushing back and left a huge hole in their backline.

With Wirtz pulling the strings they should have had more than enough to overpower the visitors but, having reached the hour mark with only Wirtz’s goals for their efforts, the momentum switched.

Ibrahima Konate’s attempt to divert Edwards’ cross back to Alisson Becker from close range required the goalkeeper to produce a brilliant reaction save, his only one of the game.

But less than two minutes later Alisson could not keep out Edwards’ shot across him after Konate failed to close down the attacker on the left of the penalty area.

That undid all the brilliant work which had put them in total control.

Even