Arne Slot described Liverpool’s defeat at Wolves as an episode that “sums up our season” and warned his squad they must address their shortcomings. André’s 94th-minute strike, deflected in via Joe Gomez, represented the fifth winning goal Liverpool have conceded in stoppage time this season and Slot bemoaned a familiar theme as his team struggled to create chances from open play.
Liverpool looked to have rescued a point through Mohamed Salah, the Egyptian cancelling out Rodrigo Gomes’s opener in the 83rd minute, but in added time André seized on a clearance by Alisson to compound Liverpool’s frustrations. Liverpool return to Molineux on Friday in the FA Cup fifth round.
Asked to sum up his emotions, Slot said: “Same old story. Recently we are picking up points because we score many times from set pieces, but what didn’t change in the last five, six seven games is that we struggle and find it very hard to score from open play chances that we do create. We had far more possession than the other team, we have created more in open play in general than the other team but have struggled to score from open play.
“That has happened to us so many times this season. That it happened in injury time may be a coincidence, although it has happened so many times. Recently we have scored a lot from set pieces. Again we had a lot of set pieces but in the first half were very poorly taken. We hardly gave away a chance today, we gave away one chance and conceded two.”
Liverpool remain fifth in the Premier League, three points behind Manchester United and Aston Villa, who play Newcastle and Chelsea respectively on Wednesday. “My expectations have changed throughout the season … I expected more from us than where we are fighting now,” Slot said of the battle to qualify for the Champions League.
“We didn’t help ourselves with this result. There are still eight Premier League games to play so we are coming closer and closer to the end. We have to do better and play better. We had enough chances to win the game. Credit to Wolves because they fought from the first second until the end and maybe got a bit of luck that they deserved.”
Victory for Wolves was just their third league win of the season and second in five days after beating Aston Villa at home last Friday. “We have to enjoy these moments, we’ve had a lot of dark times,” the Wolves head coach, Rob Edwards, said. “We’re showing we’re maybe not as bad as people thought.”
