Liverpool star called out for crucial 'mistake' leading to last-minute loss

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Liverpool fell to another defeat in the Premier League, this time against Wolves, with Arne Slot's men unable to prevent the game turning into an end-to-end contest at the end

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot.(Image: Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)

For a record fifth time in the Premier League this season, Liverpool conceded a stoppage-time winner, this time against Wolves.

But why? That is the question Arne Slot and his players have to grapple with. It was one that was put to Virgil van Dijk in the aftermath of the latest setback.

"With all due respect, it's Wolves away," the Liverpool captain told reporters. "You score the equalizer and you feel like you've got the momentum to push on. The fact is that it was wide open at times. Maybe we wanted to force the winner too much."

By the end of the game, as has been the case so often this season, it looked like a basketball match more than a soccer game. It was so end-to-end.

Having failed to create chances when it was dominating and pinning Wolves back, Liverpool had to rely on a coin toss for the direction that the points were heading.

Unfortunately for Slot, this time it went against his team. Once again, it was made to pay for a slow beginning to the match, where the Wolves defense was relatively comfortable.

Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones(Image: LFC TV)

It wasn't just the end-to-end nature of the game that cost Liverpool: there were also individual errors.

"It was a mistake from Curtis Jones — he plays a ball into Alisson and Alisson's never going to get any purchase on it," the former Reds defender Stephen Warnock said on BBC Radio 5Live.

"Andre looked heavy in the last five or so minutes but he takes a shot and it takes a wicked deflection to loop over Alisson."

Alisson himself didn't connect with the ball properly, and then he could do nothing as the shot deflected away from him. It wasn't all bad luck, though: Liverpool should never have been in that position to begin with.

"Based on our performance up until they scored their first goal, we deserved to go 1-0 behind — we were very poor," Van Dijk admitted.

"We were too slow and predictable in possession. We made the wrong decisions. We didn't concede any big chances up to that point. Defensively, we were still solid.

"But towards the end, when the game started to open up, any team can become dangerous and that's what happened."