Liverpool are losing control late in games. Arne Slot needs to fix it

By Gregg Evans

Molineux, March 2025 – When the final whistle sounded deep into stoppage time, Arne Slot sank to his knees, the same posture that has become an unwelcome signature of Liverpool’s season. A 2-1 defeat to bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers, sealed by Andre’s heavily-deflected strike in the 96th minute, was the fifth time this Premier League campaign that Liverpool have conceded a winning goal in the 90th minute or later. No side in the competition’s history has ever done so more in a single season; add two equalisers in added time and the club have hemorrhaged nine points after the 88-minute mark.

The raw numbers are jarring. Across the previous seven seasons, Liverpool averaged one such defeat per year. The leap from anomaly to epidemic points to a systemic failure in game management rather than misfortune. Slot, hired to refine the Reds’ possession-based approach, now confronts a paradox: his team dominates the ball, carves out chances, yet repeatedly collapses when victory should be secured.

Saturday’s script felt achingly familiar. Liverpool were sluggish before the break, spurned glaring opportunities—Cody Gakpo and Curtis Jones both missed from inside the six-yard box—then chased the game after Wolves’ opener in the 78th minute. Ibrahima Konaté, central to the visitors’ aerial authority, was withdrawn for winger Federico Chiesa as Slot chased an equaliser. Within minutes, the hosts countered into the vacuum Konaté had patrolled, culminating in Andre’s fortuitous winner.

It is the fourth time in five last-gasp defeats that Konaté has been off the field when Liverpool conceded. Slot’s willingness to sacrifice defensive stability for attacking impetus has become a recurring, costly gamble.

Individual errors compounded the structural flaw. Hugo Ekitiké lost possession cheaply; Dominik Szoboszlai was outmuscled by Andre; Jones elected to pass back to Alisson rather than clear his lines, forcing the goalkeeper into a panicked clearance that quickly returned. Neither Rio Ngumoha nor Chiesa tracked the midfield runner, and Joe Gomez’s attempted block merely diverted the shot past the wrong-footed keeper.

Slot labelled the outcome “the same old story,” echoing Virgil van Dijk’s assessment of a performance that was “slow, predictable and sloppy.” The manager elaborated: “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 is not even a chance. We gave away one chance and conceded two.”

The broader pattern is bleak. Liverpool have relinquished leads or parity in added time at Bournemouth, Chelsea, Crystal Palace and Manchester City, each capitulation preceded by an unbalanced offensive shape. The old adage—if you cannot win, do not lose—appears absent from the Reds’ late-game thinking.

Wolves, winless in their first 19 league fixtures, celebrated as though a cup final had been clinched. For Liverpool, the ramifications are stark. With nine matches remaining, they trail the top four by a margin that could widen if Aston Villa and Chelsea take points off each other yet Liverpool continue to donate points in the dying embers of games.

Slot’s next challenge is not tactical evolution but psychological restraint: convincing a squad wired to chase victories that, on occasion, restraint is the braver option. Until that message lands, the final minutes of Liverpool matches will remain high-stakes dramas the manager can scarcely bear to watch.

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