Liverpool and late goals: The causes, the consequences and a possible cure

Anfield has become a theatre of late-game heartbreak. Erling Haaland’s 95th-minute penalty on Sunday, sealing a 2-1 Manchester City win, was the fourth stoppage-time goal Liverpool have conceded this season, costing Arne Slot’s side eight points with a third of the campaign still to play. No Premier League team has ever shipped so many last-gasp winners so quickly; Watford, West Ham and Southampton needed full seasons to match the unwanted tally.

The collapse is a stark reversal of August and September, when Liverpool won their opening seven fixtures, six featuring decisive strikes after the 80th minute. Now every additional minute feels like a minefield. “Is it bad luck, or are we to blame?” Slot asked rhetorically on Tuesday. “I’ve made defensive substitutions and the ball went in; I kept the same players and the ball went in.”

The goals themselves share no single tactical fingerprint. Four have arrived from set pieces, one from a penalty, one from open play. Yet patterns emerge under scrutiny. Virgil van Dijk has twice failed to deal with high deliveries, first against Crystal Palace in September, then at Bournemouth last month, where Curtis Jones’ presence also impeded his captain. Both sequences began with long throw-ins and ended in second- or third-phase chaos.

Fulham’s 4-3 win at Craven Cottage on 4 January underlined the uncertainty. Leading 3-2 in the 97th minute, Liverpool retreated eight outfield players into the box and introduced Joe Gomez for extra height. Fulham simply took the throw short, worked the ball to the unmarked Harrison Reed and watched him lash a curler beyond Alisson. Three minutes earlier Cody Gakpo appeared to have stolen the points at the other end.

Leeds’ 96th-minute equaliser in December followed a similar script: a corner, a missed block by Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch’s mistimed header and Ao Tanaka’s finish. Arsenal should have punished Liverpool the same way last month, but Gabriel miscued from close range.

Slot insists the issue is not systemic. “None of these are tactical problems,” he said. “It is concentration, set-piece setup, individual mistakes.” A thread of fatigue runs through the narrative. Liverpool began 2025-26 with a shallow squad, injuries have since trimmed it further, and the first-choice XI have logged heavy minutes. In the most physically demanding league in the world, tired minds switch off at the worst moments.

Sunday’s penalty epitomised the lapse. Mac Allister and substitute Curtis Jones both failed to track Matheus Nunes’ diagonal run; Alisson rushed out, clipped Bernardo Silva and invited Haaland to convert. Against Chelsea in October, Andy Robertson was caught upfield, Estevao tapped in a 95th-minute winner after the visitors’ high press evaporated in four passes.

Sports psychologist Marc Sagal, who has worked with Premier League squads, believes the repetition is now psychological. “Once a pattern establishes itself, the mind starts to expect it,” he told The Athletic. “Doubt creates stress, and stress leads to the very mistakes players are desperate to avoid. The focus should be on executing a clear plan, not on avoiding disaster.”

Slot’s search for a cure continues. He has tried defensive reshuffles, extra centre-backs, time-wasting and deep blocks; each tweak has been followed by another concession. With 13 league games left and Champions League qualification slipping away—Liverpool sit sixth, four points behind Chelsea—the manager must halt the spiral before expectation hardens into inevitability.

The next opportunity arrives at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday. Sunderland, battling relegation, will watch the video and know exactly when to believe.