The Liverpool love affair with drama at the death
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There are few clubs in world football who can turn silence into electricity quite like Liverpool.
The longer a game stays tight, the more you sense that inevitability is lurking.
For most teams, the clock is the enemy, a dwindling reminder of wasted chances but for the Reds, it’s an accomplice.
Each passing minute heightens the tension not only in the stands but in the opposition, until the breakthrough finally appears.
At Turf Moor on Sunday, the story unfolded again.
Burnley had done almost everything right; they frustrated, they defended and played with a robustness that Liverpool struggled to match in large parts.
Yet deep into stoppage time, Hannibal Mejbri was cautioned for a handball, leading to Mohamed Salah holding his nerve from the penalty spot to seal a 1-0 victory for his side and retain their perfect Premier League start.
It was the champions’ fourth consecutive victory sealed in the final ten minutes or later – the first time in the competition’s history such a run has been achieved.
Records fall easily but this one tells a deeper truth.
HEALTHY HABITS
This run of late winners has already been written into the record books but the truth is that Liverpool’s knack for stoppage time salvation is nothing new.
The club’s folklore is littered with moments that unfolded when hope seemed to be ebbing away.
David Fairclough’s ‘super-sub’ reputation was forged on such drama throughout the seventies, Steven Gerrard’s career was defined by it, scoring goals that rewrote scripts long after they should have been sealed.
Divock Origi against Everton, Alisson Becker’s unforgettable header at West Brom – these are not scattered coincidences but recurring reminders of a cultural habit.
The current streak, then, is less about the reinvention under Arne Slot and more about continuity.
What Liverpool are doing now is what they have always done; refusing to treat the final whistle as a limit with the game of football played on their own terms.
PERSISTENCE PAYS OFF
The ability to keep conjuring late goals comes from a host of attributes that few sides can replicate.
Resilience is the first ingredient.
Matches like Burnley away test patience and mentality.
It would have been easy to accept a point after a lacklustre performance from many in a Liverpool shirt, but nor did they flinch.
They continued to apply pressure, press high and wait for the error that eventually arrived.
Fitness and intensity are another key.
Arne Slot’s Liverpool may play with more control than Jürgen Klopp’s, but the athletic demands remain high.
Opponents rarely escape pressure and by the eightieth minute, their concentrations wanes.
That is when gaps emerge and when Liverpool pounce.
Finally, there are certified match winners who thrive under pressure.
Mohamed Salah’s penalty was taken with an inevitability that only great players project.
Dominik Szoboszlai, Federico Chiesa, even teenage Rio Ngumoha against Newcastle – all have already shown the instinct to decide games this season when the margin for error is smallest.
MARGINS THAT MATTER
Of course, any run of late winners inevitably raise questions of luck.
Opponents can point to a deflected cross, a contentious decision or a tired leg that gave way.
The truth is more nuanced.
Yes, the margins in football are thin and Liverpool have benefitted from it, but to repeatedly engineer those positions late in the match is no accident.
The danger, however, lies in overreliance.
Four straight wins decided in the dying minutes but not sustainable forever.
Sooner or later, a penalty is missed, a goalkeeper guesses right or time simply runs out and that is the challenge for Slot.
To ensure Liverpool do not become addicted to the adrenaline but rather use it as a weapon when all else fails.
PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE
The greatest effect of this record may not be statistical but psychological.
Opponents know now that even if they reach the eighty-ninth minute unscathed, the danger has not passed.
That awareness gnaws at concentration, breeds caution and plants hesitation,
A full-back thinking twice about bombing forward, a midfielder under pressure to keep possession of the ball, these small shifts can tilt matches in Liverpool’s favour.
It can work the other way too.
For Liverpool’s players, late stages are not desperate but familiar.
There is confidence rather than panic and belief, rather than resignation.
This mindset is priceless and in a season where every margin counts, knowing you can win from the jaws of a draw changes everything.
A WINNING EDGE
Four games, four late winners and a line in Premier League history.
For most sides it would be a quirk of fortune, for Liverpool the word to describe it is instinct.
The closing moments have long been their chosen theatre and under Arne Slot, the act has returned with familiar inevitability.
Turf Moor was simply the latest proof that as pressure mounts and legs tire, the Reds find lucidity where others lose nerve.
What looked like a coincidence is fast becoming a signature of this side and the intrigue now lies in not whether they can summon another twist, but how many times the drama will be required.
For rivals, the message carries weight.
Every minute matters and the final whistle is never a guarantee.
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