It was unlucky for Arne Slott’s side when Andre’s shot hit Joe Gomez and deflected onto Alisson Becker. But this was no mere coincidence, given that this was the record-breaking fifth winning goal Liverpool have conceded in stoppage time this season.
Crystal Palace and Chelsea beat them this way and by the same scoreline earlier in the season. Bournemouth sealed the win in the 95th minute in January. Manchester City’s penalty last month worked for them. Last-place club Wolves have been added to the list.
“It could be a coincidence that it happens in extra time, as it has happened many times,” said Arne Slott. No team has ever lost so many games in the Premier League so late, and that doesn’t include stoppage-time equalizers between Fulham and Leeds.
The problem for Liverpool isn’t that they’re exceptionally bad at defending after 90 minutes on the clock, it’s that they find themselves in these situations more often than they need to. It was the same early in the season when they were winning.
Liverpool’s first four games this season have all been won after 83 minutes. At that time it was called the Champion’s Mark. Now it can be considered part of the same trend. Liverpool’s game has been in the balance for too long for them to survive it.
The opponent plays a low defensive block and waits. When Mohamed Salah’s stoppage-time penalty beat Burnley in September, Slott said: “If we had scored, the game might have been open, but because we didn’t score, they did the same.”
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Free to watch: Premier League Wolves vs Liverpool highlights
That was the plan for Wolves head coach Rob Edwards. “We wanted to play,” he explained after the game. “I felt we could improve.” And not just because of what his team does. “When you put more pressure on your opponent, they start to open up and you have more space.”
Slott insisted that Liverpool’s defense was solid enough. “We give very few chances. Today we gave one chance and conceded two goals.” It’s true that Alisson only made one save in the game, but Slott’s comments don’t tell the whole story.
Liverpool’s performance was chaotic after going behind, as well as a lackluster first half. As I desperately tried to follow the match, everything started to fall apart. The winners were cruel to Gomez, but Wolves had a chance to punish them before then.
Wolves running towards the Liverpool defense in a 5-on-3 situation late in the game
In the 88th minute, Andre was running into Liverpool’s last line in a 5v3 situation. In the 91st minute, Joao Gomez ran through but took the wrong option. Andre was charging forward with support from another attack just before the goal.
Given Liverpool’s ambitions, it’s only natural that they want to win late in the game. But such risks are necessary, and how do we avoid putting ourselves in a position where we are exposed to them? Not wasting the entire first half, as we did against Molineux, would be a start.
“From open plays, we have a hard time scoring,” Slott said. “We had a lot of set-pieces today as well. In the first half, the taking was very poor. It’s a bit similar to how we played. I don’t think we played very well in the first half.” That was also a regular feature of Liverpool’s performance.
They have ranked eighth in the Premier League for expected goals in the first half of games so far this season, their lowest ranking in this metric since Jurgen Klopp took over more than a decade ago. They are in 9th place in the provisional halftime table.
Their rivals also face lower blocks most weeks and deal with it more convincingly. For example, Manchester City have 64 points against 39 in the half-time table. Liverpool’s average goal time is slower than other teams. Something has been wrong from the beginning.
“Slow, predictable, sloppy.”
Virgil van Dijk has an idea. “That’s our own problem. We were slow, we were predictable, we were sloppy in possession, we made bad decisions. We obviously didn’t allow chances, but when you perform like that, you can get a result like this.”
These comments were made to Slot by Sky Sports in the post-match press conference, where the Liverpool manager revealed he said much the same thing to his players at half-time. “I told them it’s possible to play a little faster left and right,” he explained.
“If we play a little faster than we did a few times in the first half, our wingers at least have some time to play against the full-backs. I think it was better in the second half than it was in the first half. That’s why we got closer and closer than we did in the first half as well.”
Main differences from last season
Of course, that hasn’t always been a problem for reigning champions Liverpool. Last season was completely different. They won a lot of games early on. In fact, in 14 of 38 Premier League games they were leading by two or more goals by the 85th minute.
He’s only achieved that four times this season. Last season, it was held four times by mid-September. In two of those games, they were up by three points within an hour. This weekend’s game against West Ham was the first of its kind all season.
“We have much more possession than other teams. We have created more open plays and chances in general than other teams, Slott claimed. But he knows the truth: If we don’t want to rely on deflected shots, we need to do better, we have to play better.”
Because bad things can happen. If Liverpool miss out on a win too late, they are always likely to lose. The loss against Wolves was a result of their poor performance. It hurt their title defense. It could still deny Champions League football.
