Since Sadio Mané's last-minute winner at Goodison this time last year, we've only scored four equalising or winning goals in the last half an hour of matches:
Can vs Burnley (61' - just!)
Coutinho & Firmino vs Stoke (70' & 72')
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Mané vs Palace (73')
Going strictly by the laws, Solanke's strike tonight almost certainly wasn't intentional handball and thus tonight should have been one to add to the list, but I think you'd be hard pressed to find many referees who wouldn't have given that. Either way, we shouldn't be relying on one or two chances to beat dross like this.
Now, granted, that stat needs at least one piece of context applied: we're a side which tends to take the lead more often than we do go down (as is the case for the majority of good sides). But given our propensity to throw away these leads, as well as find ourselves nullified in certain games like tonight, where the hell have the late winners or equalisers gone? It's little wonder our players and fans alike have little belief going into the final stages of matches with a record like that.
The bizarre thing is that this is under a manager who, from day one, made it his one-man mission to change the vibe of the crowd and the confidence and belief of his players in these scenarios. When our fans flooded out of the stadium with the scoreline 1-1 at home to Southampton, he said he'd never felt so alone. Six weeks later, he made his players celebrate arm-in-arm when Divock Origi merely equalised in the 96th minute against tonight's opponents. He was mocked at the time from outsiders, but those of us on the inside had an acute sense of his intentions. And those intentions helped set off a chain reaction: Joe Allen's late equaliser in the 3-3 against Arsenal; Adam Lallana's unforgettable last-gasp winner in the 4-5 at Carrow Road; and of course those delirious scenes when Dejan Lovren headed in to conquer Dortmund. (There were even a few late equalisers/winners from the much-maligned Christan Benteke along the way!)
The message couldn't be clearer: Liverpool are never done in any football match.
Precisely where has this all evaporated to? Why are Klopp's subs so consistently late; his lack of in-game management so consistently galling? Tonight was an unfortunate example: not only did he leave it until the 75th minute to make his first changes, he subsequently decided to sub a right-back with a right-back. Granted, Gomez's cross for Solanke's would-be winner was a delightful one. But surely Oxlade-Chamberlain or Milner on the overlap from that position would have posed a more consistent and potent threat in those dying stages?
Of course, this goes beyond the manager. The players very much take responsibility alongside him. Why do they pass so slowly & take so many touches, allowing opponents to settle into shape? Why do certain players, most notably Firmino and Wijnaldum, absolve themselves of a fundamental responsibility in terms of receiving the ball in tight spaces? Why is everything so regularly left to Coutinho to orchestrate from deep when we need his composure closer to goal?
I love this manager, and I love some of these players. But they and the crowd collectively need to be collectively braver and seize the initiate. A late winner or two - should we require it - over this hectic period could galvanise our season. Because if we are to achieve our ground-floor goal of finishing in the top four this campaign, this pattern of dominating matches either from the outset or simply not all cannot continue.
