Arne slot did not hide behind misfortune.
After Liverpool’s 2–1 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on Tuesday night, the Dutchman offered a blunt assessment of a performance — and a recurring flaw — that he believes has defined much of his side’s campaign.
“Same old story,” Slot said in his post-match remarks.
A stoppage-time deflected strike from André secured victory for Wolves after Rodrigo Gomes had broken the deadlock in the 78th minute. Mohamed Salah responded swiftly to level the contest, but Liverpool were once again left empty-handed.
Despite dominating possession and territory, the visitors were undone by familiar issues — inefficiency in open play and a late decisive blow.
Slot pointed to a pattern that has persisted in recent weeks.
“Recently, we are picking up points because many times we’ve scored from set-pieces,” he said. “But what did not change in the last five, six or seven games is that we struggle and find it very hard to score from the open-play chances that we do create.”
He added that while Liverpool did not generate as many opportunities as he would have liked given their dominance of the ball, they still created more than their opponents.
“But, end result, we score one and they score two and indeed another time in extra time. So it sums up our season again in this game as well,” he said.
Liverpool controlled 65.8 per cent of possession and earned 11 corners compared to Wolves’ two. Yet the decisive moment arrived four minutes into added time, when a deflected effort wrong-footed Alisson Becker.
For Slot, the frustration extended beyond the timing of the goal to the broader narrative of the season.
“What I mean with ‘it sums up the season’ is that we’ve had far more ball possession than the other team, we’ve created more open-play and in general chances than the other team, but from open play we struggle to score,” he explained.
He was critical of his team’s first-half display, including their execution from set-pieces.
“First half, [they were] very poorly taken — a bit similar to how we played. I don’t think we played a very good first half.”
The second half showed improvement, though not enough to secure a result.
“The second half was better; still not great, but better. Created more and in extra time or just before extra time — I think we were twice very close from chances to score the 2-1,” he said, referencing Salah’s intercepted run and a late header from Virgil van Dijk that was saved by José Sá.
quickly restored parity, but Liverpool were once again left empty-handed despite dominating possession.
Dominance Without Decisive Edge
Slot highlighted the recurring nature of the problem.
“Those are chances, and the one we concede is not even a chance,” he said. “That is what has happened so many times this season. That it happens in extra time might be a coincidence, although it happened so many times. We hardly gave away a chance today — we gave away one chance but conceded two.”
He acknowledged Wolves’ defensive discipline.
“Well done by Wolves. They made it really hard for us, compact,” he said. Slot admitted he had urged his players to move the ball faster at half-time.
“It was possible to play a bit faster from side to side. If you play a bit faster than the few times we did in the first half, our wingers at least have some time to take their full-back on,” he explained.
Even after improving in the second half, Liverpool struggled to convert their chances.
“‘Slow’ or ‘predictable’ are words I can understand [Van Dijk] uses. We struggled to dominate on the sides today,” Slot said.
Season Outlook and Frustration
With eight Premier League games remaining, Slot said his expectations have evolved — but his standards remain high.
“My expectations have changed throughout the season because I expected more from us than where we are fighting for now,” he said. “It’s another setback, and we didn’t help ourselves with this result.”
He remained clear-eyed about the team’s performances.
“If we play this game in this fashion 10 times, I don’t think we will lose 10 times. We were not good enough to win today. If we don’t want to rely on a deflected shot, we need to play better, but we had enough chances to win the game,” he said.
Regarding the decisive deflected strike, Slot analyzed the situation without placing blame.
“You can always do things differently, but a deflected shot — I have to see how [Joe Gomez] put his body in front of the ball, if he could do anything about it or not, or if it was just bad luck. It’s not the first time a ball goes in from a deflection,” he said.
Wolves’ Surprise Triumph
For Liverpool, it was another game where dominance did not translate into points — and another late blow that shrinks their margin for error as the season nears its conclusion.
Meanwhile, Wolves have struggled this campaign, sitting at the bottom of the table with 13 points from 29 matches, having recorded just two wins. This victory over Liverpool marks their third EPL win of the season, offering a rare bright spot in an otherwise difficult season.