Arne Slot said he is no longer surprised by Liverpool conceding decisive late goals after his side surrendered a stoppage-time lead in a frantic 2-2 Premier League draw at Fulham.
Cody Gakpo appeared to have secured all three points when he scored in the 94th minute at Craven Cottage, but Liverpool’s celebrations were short-lived. Moments after the Dutch forward returned to the substitutes’ bench, Harrison Reed struck a spectacular last-gasp equaliser, curling a stunning effort into the top corner to deny the visitors victory.
Slot acknowledged that, under normal circumstances, a goal so late in the game would be expected to seal the win. However, recent experience has dulled that expectation for the Liverpool head coach.
“I think if you are not part of Liverpool and you don’t follow us every game, then you think you win it,” Slot said. “But unfortunately I’m experiencing this for months now.
“The first chance the other team gets and the only chance they got in the first half led to a goal. And that’s one thing we usually see with us. The second thing we see a lot is that the other team scores a goal you don’t expect in extra time.”
Liverpool have now dropped points to late goals on several occasions this season, having previously conceded last-gasp winners against Crystal Palace and Chelsea in October, followed by an added-time equaliser at Leeds United last month.
The visitors were also hampered by the absence of key attacking options. Top scorer Hugo Ekitike travelled with the squad to London but was ruled out after the results of an MRI scan, while record signing Alexander Isak was also unavailable. Gakpo was deployed as a central striker and did find the net twice once correctly in stoppage time and once just after half-time when ruled offside but Liverpool were noticeably less threatening without Ekitike.
Slot admitted his side lacked cutting edge but felt their chance creation was reasonable given the circumstances and Fulham’s defensive approach.
“I would love to create more, but if you play with the amount of midfielders we play with and one attacker against the 5-4-1 of Fulham in an away game, I don’t know if you can expect us to create chance after chance,” he said.
“But overall I think we’ve created enough chances to win the game, and we did very well by limiting them to maybe one, one-and-a-half chances.”
Despite Liverpool’s summer spending leaving Slot with little sympathy externally, the draw was another frustrating example of a familiar problem one that continues to undermine their efforts to close out matches at the highest level.
