With Liverpool placing yet another hurdle in front of themselves in the race for top four, is Arne Slot’s approach becoming counterproductive to the wider job at hand?
How did we end up here, then?
In what has been a season of rousing volatility mixed with self-sabotage, Liverpool now find themselves sandwiched between Molineux trips still not quite knowing what this season is meant to be – other than exhausting.
The Reds were once again left to lick wounds inflicted by an injury time winner on Tuesday night, but the true inception of failings leading to Andre’s eventual deflected late blow started long before.
False dawns upon false dawns for Liverpool
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - Tuesday, March 3, 2026: Liverpool's captain Virgil van Dijk reacts to conceding the opening goal during the FA Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Liverpool FC at Molineux Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
An alarming trend since the turn of the year has been starting games in the 46th minute. One might posit this to be a deliberate ploy in managing our way through phases and navigating the potential pitfalls involved in loosening the shackles.
You might also argue there to be a degree of weaponised incompetence at play in such scenarios. It might not have always seemed the way this season, but Liverpool still possess more firepower than around 17 teams in this league. You could maybe make the case for one or two either side, but that’s it.
Liverpool’s 2025/26 Premier League Goals
Match Period Goals Scored % of Total
First Half (0-45′) 16 33.3%
Second Half (46-90+’) 32 66.7%
*Data highlights that two-thirds of Liverpool’s Premier League goals this season have come after the interval.
The truth, as it tends to, probably lies somewhere in the middle. Slot’s side were rightly lauded for their ability to turn leads into non-events in latter stages of games en route to becoming champions, but this only serves you when you kick it in the goal first.
Control for control’s sake is what gets you into situations like Tuesday night. Seventy-five minutes of nothingness followed by blind panic in going behind, then a 10-minute basketball match succeeding the equaliser.
This simply cannot be the blueprint of champions against a side rooted to the bottom and on course for one of the worst points totals in Premier League history.
Limited space for excuses
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - Tuesday, March 3, 2026: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot catches the ball during the FA Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Liverpool FC at Molineux Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Make no mistake, whether you like it or not, it would take a monumental shift in circumstance for the manager not to see out the campaign from this point.
If the club were ever going to pull the trigger this season, PSV was where the door swung widest and with plenty still left on the table for Liverpool, it would be disruptive to the point of borderline negligence to do anything now.
And in spite of the ensuing upturn in fortunes since that night in November, Wolves was perhaps the most deflating of the lot given the context. Liverpool had no reason to look as devoid of confidence as they did.
Unconvincing though it has been, they were coming off the back of six wins in seven and having bagged five at the weekend without engaging third gear.
In a world where supporters are growing increasingly frustrated with the product – where gameplans are inexplicably centred around set pieces and throw-ins – the Reds remain culturally wedded to tradition. The manager has admitted as much himself in recent weeks.
We can – by all means – sit on our high horse and point fingers at those in more modern stables. But when the reality is that we’re not even doing our own thing properly, we are merely shouting at clouds from 16 points behind Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.
Should we wish, we are also welcome to bemoan the absence of Florian Wirtz. It is not completely unreasonable to noticeably miss the £225 million of attacking muscle upon which much of our title defence was intended to be built.
Liverpool’s Record Conceding After 90th-Minute (2025/26)
Fixture Time of Goal Points Lost
Palace (A) 90+7′ 1
Chelsea (A) 90+5′ 1
Bournemouth (A) 90+5′ 1
Man City (H) 90+3′ 1
Wolves (A) 90+4′ 1
The issue with that, though, is that the manager’s job continues to involve finding solutions and we appear to be going backwards, let alone stagnating.
There is more than enough talent within the available squad to be dealing with statistically one of the worst top-flight sides since 1992 and the latest damning issue is that any semblance of built-up confidence has now disintegrated ahead of Friday’s sequel.
Short-term fixes for long-term gains?
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - Tuesday, March 3, 2026: Liverpool's players form a pre-match huddle before the FA Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers FC and Liverpool FC at Molineux Stadium. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Slot has undoubtedly been dealt numerous bad hands throughout the course of the campaign and been hit with more adversity in nine months than potentially the rest of his managerial career combined.
At Anfield, though, seasons can’t afford to simply be written off. Liverpool could yet lift proper silverware in 2025/26 and when the chips are counted in May we might well look back on Friday as having been a bigger step than Tuesday.
To do that, they have to be braver. They have to get back to playing with the freedom that shifted expectations beyond the heights they are currently capable of reaching.
We, as fans, get to wish for this season to be over but delayed gratification doesn’t work like that in football. For next season to work, the current mess must be tidied up one way or another.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Wednesday, December 3, 2025: Liverpool's head coach Arne Slot and first assistant coach Sipke Hulshoff (R) during the FA Premier League match between Liverpool FC and Sunderland AFC at Anfield. (Photo by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)
Liverpool’s stranglehold on games last season was what brought us to the best day of our lives, but failure to strike a balance between control and caution may ultimately end up costing Slot his job in the long term.
In the meantime, simultaneously using one of our only hopes of glory as a means to rebuilding confidence is the only option at our disposal in the immediate future.
You will see in the atmosphere on Friday night which of the two fixtures means more to the hosts and it is our job to match the energy.
All things being equal, that should still be enough. Turning this never-ending corner can’t happen overnight but restoring belief to a degree at which we begin to look and act like ourselves again is the best way home from in the interim.
Just win, Liverpool.