Slot rues ‘same old story’ as Liverpool concede another late winner at Wolves

• Andre strikes in 94th minute to seal Wolves victory
• Liverpool have now lost five league games to goals after 90 minutes
• Slot says struggles in open play define season

Arne Slot described Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers as the “same old story” after another late blow in the Premier League.

Midfielder Andre secured victory for Wolves with a deflected strike in the 94th minute at Molineux, condemning Liverpool to a ninth league loss of the season.

It marked the fifth time this campaign that Liverpool have been beaten by a goal scored after the 90th minute, the most by any side in a single Premier League season.

“How do I sum this up?” 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.

“Not as much as I would like from all the ball possession we have, but enough and far more than the other team. But the end result is we scored one and they scored two and another one in injury time so it sums up our season again.”

Slot admitted his side were below their best in the opening period.

“I don’t think we played a very good first half, the second half was better, still not great, but better,” he said. “We created more, and just before injury time we were twice very close from chances to make it 2-1.

“Mo was dribbling and had to the left and right two players open, but the ball was intercepted by their defender and there was the Virgil header, and the one we conceded wasn’t even a chance.”

Forward Mohamed Salah and captain Virgil van Dijk both came close late on, but Liverpool were punished once more.

“That has happened to us so many times this season,” Slot added. “That it happened in injury time may be a coincidence, although it has happened so many times. We hardly gave away a chance today, we gave away one chance and conceded two.”

The defeat leaves Liverpool fifth in the table and at risk of dropping to sixth if Chelsea beat Aston Villa at Villa Park.

Reflecting on the implications for Champions League qualification, Slot said: “It’s another setback and we didn’t help ourselves with this result, not at all. But there are still nine games to play. We are coming closer and closer to the end.

“Dropping points in a game where it’s absolutely not necessary. If you look at the run of play, I’m not saying we played great, but if we play this game in this fashion 10 times we don’t lose 10 times.

“It’s far from sure that we win every time, therefore we are not good enough. If we don’t have to rely on a deflected shot, we have to play better and do better. But we’ve had enough chances to win the game.

“But credit to Wolves as well. They fight from first second until the end and got maybe a bit of luck they deserve when you look at how much they put in throughout the whole game.”