Premier League · Liverpool
Four Equalisers Have Hidden Liverpool's Passive Starts
Liverpool have equalised four times in two league games. The recovery is real, but it keeps disguising the same passive start without the ball.
Four answers, the same opening problem
Four equalisers have converted four deficits into two 2-2 draws for Liverpool. That is real recovery. It is also excellent camouflage for a side that has twice waited until the match was running against it before finding the distances and pressure Andoni Iraola wants.
Nottingham Forest led twice at Anfield, just as Newcastle United had led twice six days earlier, before Victor Muñoz's 82nd-minute finish secured another point. The revealing football came earlier. Dan Ndoye finished a move built from a long ball and a clean layoff, while Alisson had to push Igor Jesus's first-time shot onto the bar before halftime. Liverpool's own report described Forest as producing the clearer openings.
Iraola's post-match diagnosis was blunter: his team had been passive without the ball, left too much distance and only found greater intensity after the interval. This was not one loose half waiting to be forgotten. It was the second week in which an opponent set the speed and spacing before Liverpool responded. A comeback is a useful emergency service. It is a terrible opening strategy.
Distance without pressure is an invitation
Iraola's football is supposed to make pressure and possession reinforce each other. Close the opponent quickly, win the next duel and attack before the defensive block can reset. Against Forest, the first half inverted that chain. Liverpool stood far enough away for the visitors to connect passes, then received the ball without the momentum that a recovery can create. Slow possession was not a separate attacking problem; it was the downstream cost of passive defending.
Ndoye's opener captured the failure. Forest brought down a direct pass, moved the ball wide and reached the penalty area before Liverpool could rebuild a useful defensive picture. Later, a quickly taken throw-in released Neco Williams and ended with Alisson conceding the penalty from which Morgan Gibbs-White restored Forest's lead. The electronic substitution board became a post-match subplot, but Liverpool had already spent too much of the afternoon reacting to restarts and transitions instead of controlling them.
The second half showed the mechanism in reverse. Liverpool moved faster without the ball, played with more urgency and made their attacks arrive against a less settled defence. Cody Gakpo spun away from two defenders before crossing for Isak at the back post. Florian Wirtz then slipped Muñoz into the right side of the box for the second equaliser. Those were not hopeful deliveries thrown at a deficit. They were quick attacks created once the distances and tempo finally belonged to Liverpool.
Recovery is evidence, not absolution
Start with the reasonable case for patience. Iraola is two league matches into a new job, new players need time, and Liverpool have shown enough attacking quality to score whenever the match opens. Isak struck on 60 minutes against Forest. Muñoz followed on 82 with a fierce finish off the underside of the bar. A team that can keep finding answers has a foundation that many new managers would gladly borrow.
But the answer cannot keep validating the question. Late recovery rewards Liverpool for becoming the side they should have been from kickoff. It can also delay the harder decision about who sets the first line of pressure, how close the midfield squeezes behind it and which risks are acceptable when both full-backs advance. The Premier League is generous with drama and miserly with repeated escape routes.
Two points are better than two defeats, obviously. They are also four fewer than two wins. The table will eventually strip the romance from the comebacks and leave only the cost of the starts. Liverpool should enjoy Muñoz's goal without turning another rescue into evidence that the plan is healthy.
Sunderland gets the first 20 minutes
The transfer window makes distraction easy. Every new forward promises a brighter front line, while the less glamorous work is deciding how the current one defends. Iraola does not need every attacker to press in the same way, but he does need one shared trigger and a midfield close enough to profit from it. Otherwise Liverpool can add speed to the team sheet and still begin matches at walking distance.
Sunderland away on September 6 supplies the next measurement. Another late surge would tell us little that these two draws have not. The opening 20 minutes will tell us more: where the first forward challenge happens, whether the second player arrives, and whether a turnover becomes an attack before Sunderland can settle. If those actions connect, the possession should quicken without halftime intervention.
Iraola has already shown that he can repair Liverpool during a match. The next step is less theatrical and more valuable: send out a team that does not need fixing before it can start playing his football.
2026-2027 season
Premier League standings
| # | Team | GP | W | D | L | GD | Pts | Form |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Manchester City |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | +4 | 6 | W W |
| 2 |  Arsenal |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | +4 | 6 | W W |
| 3 |  Hull City |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | +3 | 6 | W W |
| 4 |  Chelsea |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | +2 | 6 | W W |
| 5 |  Brentford |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +3 | 4 | D W |
| 6 |  Newcastle United |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 4 | W D |
| 7 |  Everton |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +2 | 4 | D W |
| 8 |  Leeds United |
2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 4 | D W |
| 9 |  Brighton and Hove Albion |
2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +3 | 3 | L W |
| 10 |  Manchester United |
2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | +1 | 3 | W L |
| 11 |  Sunderland |
2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | W L |
| 12 |  Ipswich Town |
2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -2 | 3 | L W |
| 13 |  Liverpool |
2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | D D |
| 14 |  Bournemouth |
2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 1 | D L |
| 15 |  Nottingham Forest |
2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 1 | D L |
| 16 |  Fulham |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 0 | L L |
| 17 |  Coventry City |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -4 | 0 | L L |
| 18 |  Crystal Palace |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -5 | 0 | L L |
| 19 |  Aston Villa |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -5 | 0 | L L |
| 20 |  Tottenham Hotspur |
2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -5 | 0 | L L |
