Liverpool's Pressing Problem Halts Momentum Against Fulham

Andoni Iraola did not bother dressing it up. Liverpool’s problem was right there in the middle of the pitch.

After a flat 0-0 draw with Fulham at Anfield – against a side that arrived without a single point from their first three Premier League games – the Liverpool head coach went straight to the heart of it: the press was off, and his team paid the price in a game that never truly caught fire.

Pressing problem at the heart of Liverpool’s stalemate

Liverpool’s midfield, built around Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch from the start, never quite clicked. The structure looked loose, the distances wrong, the timing off. Fulham found pockets, passed through pressure, and for long spells in the first half the home crowd watched a familiar high-energy blueprint reduced to something far more hesitant.

“Especially in the first half, we were arriving late for the presses, that is clear,” Iraola admitted. The stands had already drawn that conclusion. Anfield groaned every time Fulham evaded the first wave and strode into space.

The visitors took advantage. Victor Munoz produced Liverpool’s best opening but could not force the breakthrough, while at the other end Jeremy Jacquet had to bail his side out with a goalline clearance from Gonzalo Garcia, Fulham threatening to twist the knife after a sloppy moment at the back.

Fulham shaded the first half. Liverpool looked disjointed. The intensity Iraola demands simply wasn’t there often enough.

Improvement after the break, but no cutting edge

The reset came after the interval. Liverpool tightened their shape, stepped higher with more conviction and finally began to pin Fulham back for longer stretches. The pressing lines were cleaner, the midfield more compact.

“I think we improved this part a lot in the second half,” Iraola said. “We have been better structured and we controlled better the game in the second half.”

Control, though, did not translate into incision. Liverpool pushed, but the final pass kept letting them down. When they did threaten, it tended to come from dead balls rather than flowing moves.

“Even without scoring the goal, I was feeling more comfortable,” Iraola added. “Even if we haven’t been incredible, and it was a struggle sometimes, we haven’t conceded clear chances. The one we conceded was the one where we messed up the goal kick and that is the only clear chance we conceded.”

That error almost undid the defensive work, but beyond that lapse, Liverpool held firm. The clean sheet felt like the bare minimum on a day when the attack spluttered.

“We had probably our best chances coming from set plays, hitting the crossbar, and one chance from Alex in the second half,” Iraola said. “But not a clear enough one that can score the goal you need in these kind of games when you are not playing well.”

Alexis Mac Allister, introduced midway through the second half in place of Gravenberch, offered a touch more control and one of those half-chances Iraola referenced. It still wasn’t enough to crack Fulham.

Endo waits as rotation looms

While Mac Allister was summoned to steady the midfield, others stayed seated. Wataru Endo and Trey Nyoni watched the full 90 from the bench, unused as Liverpool chased a winner that never came.

Endo’s wait for his first minutes of the season goes on, though that could change quickly. With Tottenham Hotspur visiting Anfield in the League Cup on Tuesday, Iraola is expected to rotate heavily, and the Japan international is edging back towards contention after a disrupted summer.

“Wata lost quite a lot of the pre-season. He is still not at his best but he is training very well,” Iraola explained. The issue is not attitude. It is traffic.

“The problem is in front of him in his position I have a lot of players. He is competing against a lot of players.

“We are giving minutes to Trey, Ryan, Alexis and Dom, players that I am selecting right now. But Wata is definitely a player that I like and for sure he will have his moments.”

Those moments may have to start in the cups. After a goalless afternoon that left Anfield restless and Iraola frustrated with the basics of his team’s pressing game, the League Cup now offers something else: a chance to reset the midfield battle and prove this stalemate was a stumble, not the start of a pattern.