The cold, hard statistics make for uncomfortable reading.
Liverpool have lost five Premier League games after conceding in the 90th minute or later this season, the most ever by a team in a single campaign. With the two equalisers they have also let in during stoppage time, that’s nine points dropped in what is the most alarming issue in their faltering season.
The strongest teams in the division are supposed to go on and win games when opponents begin to crumble, yet more often than not it’s turned the other way.
Over the last seven seasons, Liverpool averaged one defeat per campaign to last-gasp goals so to see the numbers increase so dramatically is both as shocking as it is surprising.
In isolation, the loss at Wolverhampton Wanderers — a club mocked for the past seven months as they sat bereft of hope at the foot of the table — could be put down as just one of those odd quirks. Wolves scored the opener with their first chance of the game in the 78th minute and then landed the winner with a heavily-deflected shot deep into added time. These things happen.
But while the defeat may not be as concerning as some of the others in performance terms, it’s yet another blot on the card in a season that is still hanging firmly in the balance. The amount of times Liverpool have found themselves in this situation and asking why it’s all gone wrong is a major concern.
Far too often, in the pursuit of victory they throw players forward and lose the balance at the back. As champions, it’s understandably difficult to accept that a draw, sometimes, is a respectable result when the aim and expectation is to win every game.
Yet the old saying “if you can’t win it, don’t lose it” doesn’t seem to come into the thinking. Each late setback comes with toe-curling examples of how not to see a game out. It happened at Bournemouth and at Chelsea, when Liverpool fought their way back into matches before throwing it away.
It was a similar story away at Crystal Palace, where Jeremie Frimpong made an individual error. In the defeat by Manchester City, both Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones failed to track Matheus Nunes before Alisson charged into him and conceded a penalty that Erling Haaland converted.
The winning goal at Wolves could have been avoided, too, as the moments in the build-up highlight.
Initially, the move started after Hugo Ekitike cut inside and lost possession. Dominik Szoboszlai was then beaten by Andre to a challenge in the middle that left the Hungarian on the floor, asking for a foul. Even when Liverpool appeared to have dealt with the danger, Jones should have cleared the ball instead of passing back to Alisson, forcing the goalkeeper into a poor ball upfield, which, admittedly, he should have done better with.
And to make matters worse, both Rio Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa allow Andre to run forward unchallenged, when, with a little help from the midfield, they may have prevented the shot from a player who had never scored a goal in England before.
The deflection off Gomez looks unfortunate, but he’ll be kicking himself for not doing more to block it.
As in three of the previous four defeats to late goals, Ibrahima Konate was also not on the pitch when the opposition scored the winning strike. Again he was taken off by Arne Slot and replaced by Chiesa shortly after the opening goal as Liverpool tried to salvage something from the game.
Surely by now, it’s clear that Liverpool need the Frenchman on the pitch for as long as physically possible to avoid more nights like these.
It is not just the defending that is letting Liverpool down. The urgency they showed after conceding was another frustrating part. Why can’t Liverpool start away games like that?
So many of the worrying patterns of this season were laid bare at Molineux, including another poor first half, barely believable missed chances — how did Jones and Cody Gakpo fail to score from two yards? — and then the unbalanced ending.
Cody Gakpo missed a golden chance (David Rogers/Getty Images)
Virgil van Dijk said after the game to TNT Sports that “we were slow, predictable and sloppy”. Slot added that it was the “same old story and sums up our season”.
When pressed on exactly what he meant by that, he replied: “We’ve had far more ball possession than the other team, we’ve created more chances in general but in open play we’ve struggled to score. The one we concede (in stoppage time) is not even a chance. We gave away one chance and conceded two.”
The opposition hurt so much more. Wolves failed to win any of their first 19 Premier League games and have been at the foot of the table since the opening day of the season.
Admittedly, their form since the turn of the year is noteworthy. They held leaders Arsenal last month, then beat Aston Villa and seeing the manager Rob Edwards flying down the touchline towards the celebrating supporters is becoming a more regular sight these days.
But Liverpool had the opportunity to lay down a marker ahead of the run-in to finish in the top five and failed to execute. In the stands, the winning goal was celebrated by home fans like a cup win. It was pure chaos.
Slot’s reaction was to drop to the floor in disbelief. His side have conceded the most points from stoppage-time goals this season.
Late into the night, during his post-match press conference, Slot paused to consider how many games were remaining in this most testing and frustrating of league campaigns. The answer is nine.
There will be a sliver of consolation in knowing that Aston Villa and Chelsea will take points off each other tonight, but Liverpool’s lack of consistency will alarm him. More careless displays like this and the consequences could be dire.
