When Andre’s deflected shot looped over Alisson Becker at Molineux, it felt cruel. It was also historic. No Premier League side has ever lost so many games to winning goals in stoppage time as this Liverpool team under Arne Slot. Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Bournemouth, Manchester City and now Wolves have all struck at the death. Fulham and Leeds salvaged late draws. The pattern is too clear to be dismissed as misfortune.

The numbers point to a structural problem rather than a psychological flaw in the final minutes. Liverpool are not uniquely fragile after 90 minutes; they are repeatedly arriving at that stage with the game still in the balance. That is the real issue. Earlier in the season, when they were the ones snatching late winners, it was framed as resilience. In reality, it was a warning.

Slot’s side are leaving themselves too much to do. They rank in the middle of the Premier League for first-half expected goals, their lowest standing in that metric in more than a decade. In a notional half-time table, they sit in mid-table. For a team with title ambitions, that is damning. Matches are drifting, opponents are encouraged, and the margins shrink.

Rivals face the same low defensive blocks but handle them more ruthlessly. Manchester City, for example, build leads earlier and more often, easing the pressure late on. Liverpool, by contrast, are slow and predictable in possession, as Virgil van Dijk admitted. Too many first halves are passive, with sterile domination and poor set-piece delivery.

The consequence is a recurring late-game script. Liverpool push bodies forward in search of a winner, lose their structure, and become vulnerable to transitions. At Wolves, the decisive goal was preceded by multiple breakaways: five-on-three and then another overload before Andre finally punished them. The chaos was not an accident; it was invited.

Slot argues that his team usually concede few chances and dominate the ball. That can be true and still miss the point. Control without incision keeps opponents interested. When Liverpool fail to turn possession into a cushion, they are one deflection, one counter-attack, one misjudged tackle away from disaster.

This is not a curse. It is a tactical and tempo problem. Until Liverpool start games with the urgency they reserve for the final 15 minutes, late goals against them will remain a feature, not a freak occurrence – and their season will continue to hang on the thinnest of threads.