Liverpool have developed a concerning habit this season that was laid bare against Man City at the weekend.
It’s difficult to nail down what’s going wrong at Liverpool this season.
We can all agree that quality is not an issue, judging by some of the performances we have witnessed on the European stage.
Injuries play a role, sure. Arne Slot gets plenty of criticism from fans for his part. And some of our best players just aren’t in good form.
But those reasons still don’t make sense of Liverpool’s Premier League form. The side that won the title last season now has just six wins in the last 20 games.
Discuss: Liverpool are worse to watch this season than under Roy Hodgson
A bleak comparison for Slot 😬
Well, one huge factor not yet mentioned is the source of Michael Owen’s confusion, and the source of our despair.
Michael Owen on Liverpool’s disastrous late-game collapses
Liverpool are on course for Premier League history this season.
They are just the fourth side ever to concede four last-minute winners in a single campaign. One more puts them ahead of — or rather, below — the rest.
And Owen thinks this is damaging their season as much as anything else.
What is the reason for this? It can’t just be coincidence!
A shocking statistic from a shocking season
He tells Premier League Productions: “It’s a big concern, isn’t it? And that type of thing plays on your mind, and it’s, you know, vice versa. When you score goals late on, if you’re pressing for a goal, you actually genuinely believe it’s going to happen, and that is so powerful. Rather than hoping, actually believing.
“Liverpool at the moment, when they’re defending, they must be thinking ‘we’re going to concede’ because it keeps happening and it’s hard to get that out of your mind.”
It does feel extremely likely that the Reds will break that unwanted record. It’s going to be on their minds, and that never helps.
He continues: “So it’s a problem for Liverpool. It’s probably a mental problem more than anything. A little bit like what Bernardo Silva mentioned to us earlier about the mental problem of first half compared to second half. There’s no reason why it should be.
“It’s not like they’re not fit, they’ve gone and proven that. So it is a strange one. It is a mentality thing. And the more you prevent that from happening in the future, the more that will disappear. But at the moment, it is a problem.”
Liverpool don’t have the bench they did last season
Owen is right about mentality playing a huge part, but Slot is also dealing with a much smaller squad than last season and one that is, with current absences, defensively much weaker.
The inability to see out games could be put down to a dearth of options to introduce to see out games.
Slot doesn’t trust Wataru Endo anymore, but he was the best at that last season.
Maybe they will move past that mental block, and players returning from injury may address the lack of sub impact. Though, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
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