The good and the bad of van Aanholt’s performance against Liverpool

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Sunderland lost to Liverpool on Saturday but Patrick van Aanholt had a solid game…apart from one big mistake, of course.

Liverpool defeated Sunderland 1-0 on Saturday courtesy of a goal from Lazar Markovic.

The Serbian winger looked to have been beaten to the ball by the Black Cats’ defender Patrick van Aanholt, only for the Dutchman to somehow lose it before it fell kindly to the 20-year-old who coolly slotted home.

It was a moment to forget for the Dutchman; a player whose all-round performance actually saw him outshine his defensive colleagues in some key areas, although that is likely to be forgotten following his failure to deal with Markovic prior to the goal.

As you can see from the statistics below, Sunderland’s left-back won at least twice as many duels as any of his fellow defenders while he also won more tackles and made two outfield blocks (the latter matched only by Santiago Vergini).

Further up the field, the Sunderland player went on four dribbles and played 15 forward passes, while he set up one goal-scoring chance for a teammate and played one accurate cross.

Some Sunderland fans feels van Aanholt is not good enough in defensive areas, and his failure to cut out the danger posed prior to the goal on Saturday certainly added to their argument.

But it should also be remembered that the player has not had a club to call his home for quite some time and he has only recently returned from a serious injury.

He will have better games than the one he did against Liverpool, but he still showed he has plenty in his locker, and he is a player set for a bright future in the game.