Liverpool looked to be coasting after Luis Diaz and Mo Salah put them 2-0 up at the break, but were lucky to see out the win after an awful second half
After the drama of their midweek Merseyside derby, Liverpool resumed their business-as-usual habit of taking comfortable victories with relatively minimal fuss when Wolves came to visit Anfield.
Or at least that was how it looked at half-time, and that was how it should have been. And, in fact, a victory was secured, but nothing like comfortably. In the end, Liverpool made it more tense and difficult for themselves than they should have done.
That collapse against Everton was just the third time this season that Liverpool have gone ahead and not seen out the full three points, away to Newcastle and at home to Manchester United being the others. That accounts for most of the difference between them and their nearest rivals Arsenal; the Gunners have the second-best record in the division, and have still dropped twice as many points from winning positions.
But that is starting to change; those nervy moments are coming more and more often. It took Liverpool 14 games to drop points from a winning position this season, another six for them to do it again, then five more from there. And they were fortunate that it didn’t happen twice in a row here.
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However, on this occasion, that owed as much to the standard of their opposition as it did to Liverpool’s capabilities. Wolves put up a fight, but another side would have scented blood and gone after it much more convincingly than they managed after Matheus Cunha pulled one back with his 12th goal of the season.
In reality, it should already have been over by then. Liverpool could have been 3-0 up and with the result beyond all reasonable doubt – except that Diogo Jota selfishly took a Ryan Gravenberch through ball away from Luis Diaz (fair enough), rounded a defender to give himself a virtual tap in, and then for some reason produced a clear-as-day dive rather than simply putting the ball in the net.
That’s far from the first time we have seen a Premier League player prioritise winning a penalty over the objective of just trying to score an actual goal. The habit would be stupid at the best of times, but with VAR in effect it is downright brainless; surely they have learned by now that there’s a fair chance they will be caught out.
The argument against that, of course, could be found earlier in the game. Luis Diaz knew he was being forced to too narrow an angle for a goal to be likely, and so poked the ball beyond the keeper’s reach in hopes of getting clattered to the floor. Jose Sa obliged, and Mohamed Salah scored from the spot.
For players to go looking for penalties in those circumstances is nothing new. But to do so at the complete exclusion of even trying to score – as Jota did – feels new and bizarre. That mindset tells us something about the disproportionate place penalties have taken up in the minds of players, pundits and fans.
More pointedly for Liverpool, it speaks of a slide away from the absolute ruthlessness that was a hallmark of their early-season performances under Arne Slot, a gradual loss of focus on what is really important for ensuring those results keep getting churned out. Try and get the ball in the net first and foremost, and let the rest fall where it may.
That, too, has been a major difference between Liverpool and Arsenal, who we have rightly derided for sometimes getting so focused on the meta-game that they are guilty of ignoring the game itself.
We always talk about the physical effects of fatigue, but these kinds of details are the ones that can get lost in the fog of mental exhaustion.
For now, Liverpool remain top of the league and should still coast to that league title – but they can’t afford to hope to get away with second halves like that too many more times.
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