Liverpool punished for familiar mistake as three Arne Slot men cause concern - 5 talking points

Liverpool managed to lose against the bottom side, Wolves, with Mohamed Salah's leveler a rare moment when the Reds looked like scoring on a difficult outing. This is what we spotted.

Joao Gomes of Wolverhampton Wanderers is challenged by Alexis Mac Allister of Liverpool.(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON // Liverpool fell to a late defeat thanks to Andre's strike at Molineux, with a poor showing from Arne Slot's men leading to more dropped points in the race for the Champions League spots.

The first 45 minutes were utterly abject, with few chances or incidents of note for either side. Rodrigo Gomes opened the scoring before Mohamed Salah leveled and then Andre saw a fortunate shot find the back of the net.

While Slot's team struggled to create much, it was unfortunate to lose. But ultimately, that is the risk that it was taking with such a ponderous performance. Here are the five things Liverpool.com spotted as the game unfolded.

Wide areas cause concern

Mohamed Salah has now scored in each of his last three games against Wolves, but in the Premier League this season, he had not found the back of the net since November 1 against Aston Villa. Ending the drought would have felt good, but only for a short while.

On the opposite flank, Cody Gakpo has been far from inspiring in recent weeks. Between them, the two Liverpool wide players have often looked predictable and lacking some explosive pace.

At right-back, Jeremie Frimpong was brought in to offer some added speed and explosiveness in the final third, but he couldn't really provide it.

Rio Ngumoha was called for with around half an hour to play and he did fairly well on occasion, but the equalizer came from a major Wolves error. All round, Liverpool didn't have enough in attack.

Liverpool creativity lacking

Without Florian Wirtz once again because of his back injury, Liverpool needed others to step up and provide something. In the event, though, even the set-piece delivery was below par — a complete contrast to their last outing.

Though Liverpool scored five times against West Ham United at the weekend, it was far from a five-star attacking performance. The Reds deserved credit for being clinical, but relied heavily on corners and lacked much in the way of control.

Wolves was not able to counter-attack at will in the same way that West Ham was at times, but it did in the crucial moments. It was simply that it lacks quality and will be a Championship team next term.

Arne Slot trait deserts Liverpool

Lacking much in the way of control — Arne Slot's favorite word last season — for much of the match, Liverpool was almost in too much of a cruising mood here. The Reds found it easy enough to get to the edge of the penalty area, but then ran out of ideas.

At the weekend, it made several fairly unforced errors in passing into dangerous areas and gifting possession away. That didn't happen on this occasion, but little else did.

Liverpool has failed to score in 19 of its 29 first halves in Premier League fixtures so far this season. With that being the case, it always ran the risk of going behind and things could have been even worse had Salah not leveled after a big Wolves mistake.

Ryan Gravenberch hooked

Ryan Gravenberch was booked early on in the game and he was walking a tightrope from that point onwards. The Dutchman wasn't great last weekend and that continued here.

Control last season was established when he was almost spraying the ball about on autopilot. Here, he seemed to be overthinking things, and having put in one poor tackle, he followed that up with several more minor ones with the crowd hopefully asking for a second caution.

He wasn't the only one to be slow on the ball and not offer as much as he can at his best, but he was perhaps the most notable underperformer relative to the heights we know he can reach. On a booking, he was taken off at half-time.

Champions League state of play

In the race for the Champions League spots, there is a margin for error. It is for that exact reason that the teams involved in the battle are not higher up the standings and in title contention.

Ahead of Aston Villa hosting Chelsea and Manchester United going to Newcastle on Wednesday, though, it was vital that Liverpool took advantage of having quite comfortably the easiest fixture of the midweek round.

A win of more than two goals could have seen Liverpool move up to third, momentarily at least, strengthening its grip on the Champions League spots. Instead, it really struggled again.