Erling Haaland’s 93rd-minute penalty for Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday afternoon was the fourth stoppage-time winner Liverpool have conceded this season—the joint-most any Premier League club has ever shipped in a single campaign.

Arne Slot has grown incredibly weary of this unwanted pattern. “We see a lot a team scores a goal you don’t expect in added time. So is it then a surprise?” he wondered aloud back in January.

Given Liverpool’s status as defending Premier League champions, this remarkable slackness in stoppage time is undoubtedly a shock. The other teams they have joined at this unwanted high watermark had nothing close to Slot’s resources.

Premier League Roll for Conceding Four Stoppage Time Winners in the Same Season

Watford were coming off a narrow relegation escape as their frequent late concessions underpinned a second-half slump in the 2017–18 season. When this problem resurfaced in 2021–22, the Hornets couldn’t avoid the drop—much like Southampton last term.

West Ham United climbed as high as seventh despite their unconvincing conclusions in 2021–22, although that tiredness was explained by a draining run to the Europa League semifinals in the same campaign. Liverpool have no such excuses and plenty of time to take the record for themselves.

Is There a Pattern to Liverpool’s 90th-Minute Concessions?

“The amount of times we conceded late goals in extra time is far more than usual. The question is, is it bad luck or are we to blame?” Slot sighed this week. The Dutchman has certainly attempted everything in his tactical arsenal to turn the tide at the end of games.

“I think I’ve tried many different things,” he pointed out, “so I’ve made defensive substitutions and the ball went in and I kept playing the same players and the ball went in.

“We’ve tried a lot and sometimes it feels… I can fairly say we haven’t been lucky, that’s definitely true. Is it then unlucky or is this part of who we are? That is something we can only find out in the upcoming three to four months.”

Liverpool’s Stoppage-Time Sucker Punches

When analysing the exact nature of the four late sucker punches Liverpool have shipped, there is no obvious thread running through them all. As Virgil van Dijk fumed after City’s late penalty: “Maybe you can compare the Palace goal and the Bournemouth goal but this one you can’t compare with the others.”

Both Crystal Palace’s Eddie Nketiah and Bournemouth forward Amine Adli picked out the bottom corner after Liverpool failed to clear a long throw—an increasingly common tactic in this season’s Premier League which has repeatedly befuddled Slot’s side at any point in matches.

Estêvão struck late for Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in October by deliberately targeting the right wing which Mohamed Salah so often leaves unguarded. Marc Cucurella was not tracked by the Egyptian forward and squared for his teammate to bundle in at the back post.

Haaland’s penalty was won by a late run into the other side of the box. Matheus Nunes took advantage of the void left by Milos Kerkez, who trundled out far too slowly to Bernardo Silva as he knocked the ball over the fullback for his compatriot. Alisson compounded this error by bizarrely charging off his line to foul Nunes.

There may be no miraculous solution but that just means that several areas need to be tidied up. “The fact is we conceded late on and I keep saying it but we have to do better in this,” Van Dijk bluntly concluded.

The ‘Unacceptable’ Prospect Facing Liverpool

When the four stoppage-time winners are combined with the two equalising goals Liverpool have shipped after the 90th minute this season, the Reds have seen eight points slip out of their grasp in the closing stages of contests.

The defending champions head into the midweek round of fixtures four points adrift of Chelsea in fifth place, which will likely be the last spot for Champions League qualification. Slot could scarcely countenance the possibility of finishing as low as sixth. “If we don’t have Champions League football it has definitely not been an acceptable season,” he fretted.

Should this disaster scenario unfold, Slot warned that Liverpool will feel the consequences in this summer’s transfer window. “When I arrived here we could only sign Federico Chiesa and that was after a Europa League season,” the Dutch boss warned. “So, that does have an enormous impact on the way this club is run, that is clear. So, we are completely aware and I am completely aware of that.”

READ THE LATEST LIVERPOOL NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS AND MORE