When André’s shot deflected off Joe Gomez and flew over Alisson Becker it felt unlucky for Arne Slot’s side. But this was the fifth game this season in which Liverpool have conceded a winning goal in stoppage time—hardly a coincidence.
Liverpool’s stoppage-time defeats this season:
Crystal Palace 2-1 Liverpool (Estevao, 90+5)
Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool (Nketiah, 90+7)
Bournemouth 3-2 Liverpool (Adli, 90+5)
Liverpool 1-2 Man City (Haaland pen, 90+3)
Wolves 2-1 Liverpool (André, 90+4)
And a couple of late draws: Fulham 2-2 Liverpool (Reed, 90+7); Leeds 3-3 Liverpool (Tanaka, 90+6).
The issue is not simply that Liverpool suddenly become poor after the 90th minute. It is that their matches are too often still in the balance by then. Early in the season that trend looked like a strength—each of Liverpool’s first four wins came after the 83rd minute and were hailed as champions’ mentality. Now the same pattern leaves them exposed: opponents sit in low defensive blocks and wait, inviting pressure and hoping space opens as Liverpool push for a winner.
Rob Edwards, Wolves’ head coach, was explicit: his plan was to stay in the game and then exploit the spaces that appear when the opponent presses for a late goal. Slot acknowledged the frequency: “That it happens in extra time might be a coincidence, maybe, although it happens so many times.” No team in Premier League history has lost as many games as Liverpool have this season so late on.
Slot argued Liverpool “hardly give away a chance” and pointed to Alisson only making one save in the match, but that understates the problem. After going behind Liverpool became chaotic; shape dissolved as they chased the result. Wolves had clear chances before the final deflected strike. In the 88th minute André ran at Liverpool in a five-on-three; Joao Gomes later chose the wrong option as another attack broke through; André had support in the move that produced the decisive deflection. The winner was cruel on Gomez, but Liverpool’s defensive exposure was self-inflicted.
Slot and players have highlighted broader attacking shortcomings. “From open play, we struggle to score,” Slot said, noting a reliance on set-pieces and poor finishing in the first half. Virgil van Dijk blamed their own performance: “We were slow, we were predictable and sloppy in possession and wrong with decision-making.” Slot told his players at half-time to move the ball faster from side to side so wingers had time to take on full-backs; the second half showed some improvement but not enough.
Underlying statistics underline the problem. Liverpool rank eighth for expected goals in the first half this season, their lowest such ranking since before Jurgen Klopp arrived. In a provisional half-time table they sit ninth. Their average goal time is later than any other side. By contrast, Manchester City dominate the half-time table, illustrating that dealing with low blocks more effectively is possible.
A key difference from last season is the frequency of comfortable leads. Last year Liverpool led by two or more goals going into the final five minutes in 14 of 38 league games; this season they have done that only four times, and not until recently did they build big leads. That scarcity of early control means more matches are decided in frantic final minutes.
Slot accepts the truth: “If we don’t want to rely on a deflected shot, we need to do better, we have to play better.” Leaving games to the final moments makes them vulnerable to the unpredictable—a deflection, a penalty, a single mistake—and that vulnerability has already undermined their title defence and could yet cost them Champions League qualification.