Iraola's patience wearing thin on the touchline

If the atmosphere inside Anfield tells you anything, it's that this is not the Liverpool performance the crowd came to see. Around 40 minutes into Saturday's Premier League fixture, the Reds have been unable to find the kind of high-tempo urgency that lit up Anfield in their midweek European win, and their manager is making no secret of his annoyance.

BBC Sport reporter Aadam Patel, reporting live from pitchside, captured the mood perfectly. "Bar a few moments, Liverpool are lacking in the urgency we saw a lot of on Wednesday night while Andoni Iraola is getting increasingly frustrated at how long Fulham are taking for their throw-ins," Patel noted. "You can hear the frustration growing around Anfield too because Fulham do look comfortable on the ball."

It is a telling image, a manager who demands relentless pressing and high intensity, forced to watch the opposition drain time through slow restarts and deliberate delays. Every wasted throw-in is a small victory for Fulham and a fresh source of irritation for Iraola.

Fulham's game plan is working

Fulham came to Anfield without a Premier League point to their name this season, and on paper that made them the kind of side Liverpool should be sweeping aside. But football is not played on paper, and the visitors have shown real tactical discipline, settling into a composed possession game that has effectively neutered Liverpool's attempts to build any sustained pressure.

The deliberate management of restarts is no accident. By slowing the game down whenever possible, Fulham have successfully disrupted the counter-pressing rhythm that makes Liverpool so difficult to play against at their best. The groans audible around the ground are directed at the match officials, frustrated by how comfortably the visitors are managing the clock, but the truth is Fulham deserve credit for the clarity of their approach.

As the first half approaches its conclusion, it is the away side who have controlled the tempo of the contest, a remarkable state of affairs given the gulf in expectations between the two sides heading into the fixture.

The half-time reset Iraola needs

The dressing room break cannot come quickly enough for Liverpool. Iraola will be desperate to get his players in at half-time, address what has gone wrong, and demand the kind of intensity that has been conspicuously absent in the opening period.

The midweek showing against Atletico Madrid proved this squad is capable of delivering exactly that sort of performance, so the tools are clearly there. The question is whether Iraola can find the right words to unlock them in the second half and finally get Anfield roaring rather than groaning.

Fulham have set their stall out and executed it well, now it is over to Liverpool to find a way through.