Anfield Stalemate: Tired Liverpool Held as Fulham Bank First Point
Three days after facing Atlético Madrid, Andoni Iraola's Liverpool lacked the sharpness to break down Álvaro Arbeloa's Fulham in a 0-0 draw.
Liverpool 0, Fulham 0 — and for once at Anfield, the visitors will have enjoyed the scoreline more. The draw gave Álvaro Arbeloa's Fulham their first point of the season after three straight defeats, per Sky Sports, while Andoni Iraola is still waiting for his first Premier League home win as Liverpool manager.
Heavy legs after Madrid
The context mattered. Liverpool had played Atlético Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday, and Iraola didn't hide from what it cost: "There is a lack of freshness, definitely... our players were tired," he said, having earlier noted the sub-70-hour turnaround was among the worst on the calendar. Bradley Barcola was handed his first Premier League start, but the sharpness never came.
The closest Liverpool went: Víctor Muñoz headed against the crossbar from a Kostas Tsimikas corner midway through the first half, and Alexander Isak sent a stoppage-time header wide from Dominik Szoboszlai's corner. Per Yahoo Sports, Liverpool had 56% of the ball but an expected-goals figure of just 0.99 to Fulham's 0.83 — about as even as an Anfield siege gets.
Fulham's plan works
Fulham weren't just parking the bus. Josh King forced Alisson into a tip-over from range, and Rodrigo Muniz couldn't quite control when played through late on. "We realised how important it is to be balanced and control the transition," Arbeloa told Sky Sports — and his side did exactly that for 90 minutes.
The bigger picture
Per Sky Sports, this is the third draw in four league games under Iraola. Liverpool remain unbeaten, but the fixture raised a question Sky's Adam Bate framed directly: whether this side can sustain its tempo once European midweeks start stacking up. Fulham, meanwhile, finally have something on the board.