Why Liverpool look far from the free-flowing side they were last season

When the times were good, the last-minute goals were hailed as ‘the champion mindset’ and Liverpool’s ‘never give up’ attitude. But it papered over the cracks, which have now exposed their frailties

Since that loss to Crystal Palace at the end of September, Liverpool lost to Galatasaray in the Champions League and Chelsea & Man United in the Premier league. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

‘A king’s time as a ruler rises and falls like the sun,’ Mufasa told the protagonist Simba in the much-celebrated Disney movie The Lion King. It’s an old adage that’s true for life as well. Nothing remains constant forever, especially in the realm of football. Manchester City’s dominance was cut short last season when they finished trophy-less. Manchester United’s habit of winning the Premier League have now been relegated to dust with the Red Devils struggling to even reach the top 4 in the last few years, let alone be title challengers. And after the glorious highs of last season, Liverpool, in the last few matches, have been in freefall.

Since that loss to Crystal Palace at the end of September, Liverpool lost to Galatasaray in the Champions League and Chelsea in the league. But on Sunday, the air around Anfield was sucked out when Manchester United’s Harry Maguire’s header found the back of the home team’s net in the 84th minute, inflicting the 4th straight defeat on Arne Slot’s Reds. In a cruel twist of fate, it was another late goal that Liverpool had conceded after they had fallen to Crystal Palace in the 97th minute and to Chelsea in the 95th minute. Liverpool’s greatest weapon of scoring late winners this season was catching up and used against them.

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When the times were good, the last-minute goals were hailed as ‘the champion mindset’ and Liverpool’s ‘never give up’ attitude. But it papered over the cracks. It hid the fact that Liverpool this season were far from the all-conquering unit they were under Arne Slot last season. This was inevitable. With Liverpool having brought in £450m worth of reinforcements in order to strengthen the team, the new players needed time to adjust to the system.

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And the glitch in the Matrix showed in the season opener against Crystal Palace in the Community Shield where despite early goals from new signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong, the Reds ultimately drew the match in regular time before falling to penalties.

Liverpool’s Federico Chiesa reacts after a missed chance. (PHOTO: REUTERS)

Then came the Premier League match against Bournemouth where Ekitike and Cody Gakpo’s strikes were cancelled out by Antoine Semenyo before Federico Chiesea and Mohamed Salah scored in the 88th and 94th minutes respectively to save the champions’ blushes. This kicked off a spate of games where Liverpool scored pretty late in the matches and scraped by.

In their second match of the league against Newcastle, they had to rely on a 100th minute strike from teenager Rio Ngumoha to win 3-2, followed by an 83rd minute free kick by Dominik Szoboszlai to win 1-0 vs Arsenal. Then came the Burnley match where Salah scored a 95th minute penalty for Liverpool to win 1-0. The penchant for scoring late also spilled over to the Champions League where Liverpool edged Atletico Madrid 3-2, courtesy of Virgil van Djik’s 92nd minute goal. They would then go on to defeat Everton 2-1 before returning to the habit of scoring late when Ekitike slammed in an 85th minute strike against Southampton to win 2-1.

Except the Everton match, every other match in aforementioned long list was won by late strikes which felt like huge relief at the time but was hiding a bigger problem. Liverpool were struggling to dominate opponents, something that wasn’t a problem in Slot’s first season. But with the squad overhaul and departure of players like Trent Alexander Arnold and Luis Diaz, the balance feels skewed.

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It hasn’t helped that the new record signings Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, both setting Liverpool back by a cool £116m and £125m respectively, hasn’t exactly started their season on fire. Wirtz has played 10 matches in all competitions and has yet to produce a goal or an assist. Meanwhile, Isak came to Liverpool after an ugly saga with former club Newcastle and has contributed 1 goal in 7 matches in all competitions. These are woeful numbers for players with that price tag but knowing their quality, they are likely to come good eventually.

Most of the other Liverpool players including the talismanic Salah have struggled for consistency. (PHOTO: AP)

Liverpool’s main problems, however, lies in defence where the central partnership of van Djik and Ibrahim Konate look far from assured while new signing Milos Kerkez has struggled badly. To put it into numbers, from the first 8 EPL matches, Liverpool have conceded 11 goals, up from 3 they let in last season while 5 of the goals this season coming from set pieces which was 0 in 2024/25 after the same number of matches.

Against United, van Djik and Mac Allister had a coming together which led to Bryan Mbeumo scoring after just 62 seconds, perfectly encapsulating the chaos in the backline while Maguire’s late goal also came down to the Reds’ lack of concentration in defence, something they have been guilty of quite often this season. The only players who have looked up to speed this season have been Ekitike, to a certain extent Frimpong and Szoboszlai, who has excelled even in the role of a makeshift right back whenever called upon. Most of the other Liverpool players including the talismanic Salah have struggled for consistency with the Egyptian guilty of missing an easy chance against United, something that he would have put into the back of the net if it was last season.

With Arsenal going 4 points clear, Liverpool, currently in 4th place have their work cut out to repeat last season’s heroics.