Compromise is a vital part of football management. The surprising number of long balls studding Liverpool's game suggested that Brendan Rodgers, mere weeks into his first season at Anfield, has already accepted the need to modify a few short-passing principles.

With Steven Gerrard in Liverpool's team it is virtually impossible to replicate precisely the controlled, possession-based game Rodgers instilled at Swansea and the Northern Irishman has responded with a sensible dash of pragmatism.

The only shame is that this slight relaxation of philosophy arrived too late to keep Andy Carroll at Anfield. Had Carroll – or another senior outright striker of the type Liverpool, unforgivably, lack – been on the pitch, Rodgers' team would surely have won comfortably.

With Raheem Sterling excelling on the right of the front three and Jonjo Shelvey dangerous in an attacking midfield role in front of Gerrard and Joe Allen, Liverpool were frequently a fluid blur of exhilaratingly high-tempo passing and movement. When they played it long they usually did so with intelligence and accuracy but they lacked an attacking focal point.

Fortunately for Martin O'Neill a Sunderland side well below their best possessed a £12m centre-forward in Steven Fletcher who, courtesy of dreadful defending on Glen Johnson's part, scored his third goal in two games.

Sunderland had started badly and vaguely got going only when the impressive Jack Colback began exploiting the gaps left by Gerrard's occasional positional indiscipline. With the normally assured Allen hassled into uncharacteristic concessions of possession, they might have done better on the counter-attack had Adam Johnson not been absent injured or the alarmingly lacklustre Stéphane Sessègnon looked as if he cared.

An evocative evening when thoughts rested with the 96 who lost their lives at Hillsborough 23 years ago really should have concluded with Liverpool's first league victory of the season but they had to settle for a point achieved by way of Sterling's cross, Titus Bramble's misjudgment and Luis Suárez's volley.

"We dominated and should have won," said Shelvey. "Stevie G always has words of inspiration for us before kick-off and he was like that again but the boss was like that too. His message was 'do it for the 96'.

"What happened this week was an inspiration for us. The Liverpool fans fought for years to get that verdict and we wanted to do it for them. Everyone is gutted we didn't get the three points we deserved.

"The way Brendan Rodgers plays his football suits me. His system is working, we're dominating possession but we have to start taking our chances. When we do that we'll rise up the table. We were disappointed no striker was brought in at the end of the transfer window but it's down to the midfielders to start racking up goals."

Although Suárez is clearly a forward, his clever approach play – sometimes too subtle for team-mates – against a Sunderland team that last won a Premier League game in March emphasised that he is much more a creator than a finisher.

Yet the moment, late on, which really highlighted the folly of loaning Carroll to West Ham came when the Uruguayan – whose booking for a first-half dive was his third in four league games – took a corner. The problem? At that point Suárez was the only visiting player who could properly be described as a striker and he needed to be in the area.

"Luis plays on emotion, all the top players do," said Rodgers. "I've got to say I'd read all these reports about Luis but he's been an absolute pleasure to work with. He's a good guy, an honest guy who works very hard."

Much the same could be said about Kenny Dalglish's successor; what a shame Rodgers lacks the centre-forward required to make the most of his very real managerial qualities.