Liverpool first-team coach Pepijn Lijnders has played down the impact that a fan protest made on the players during this afternoon's 2-2 draw with Sunderland.

The Reds looked to be cruising to victory at Anfield when thousands of fans left the stadium in the 77th minute to protest against rising ticket prices.

Sunderland went on to launch a late comeback and rescue a point, but Lijnders does not believe that his side's collapse had anything to do with the supporters leaving early.

"We have one of the best supporters groups in the world so if they want to make a statement, they have the right to. It changed the atmosphere in the stadium, but not our mentality," Lijnders told reporters.

"We have a group who are young with loads of quality and potential. It is up to us to create a style that gets further and further and, over time, you realise winning is a logical result of development. For 82 minutes we played really well. We were good, to be honest. We dominated the game, could always find a free player and create spaces between the lines, but in the last 10 minutes we started walking back.

"It is always a collective problem, we drop off too much. The players did excellent, but they know the circumstances. We felt we were in control, then one moment changes everything, but there were still eight or 10 minutes where you have to be calm."

Lijnders was speaking to the press due to the absence of Jurgen Klopp, who missed the game in order to have his appendix removed.