Lucky Liverpool? No, smart Slot the key to late winners

Liverpool have not been without good fortune this season, but their habit of securing dramatic wins is mostly down to the positivity of the manager.

Photo: IMAGO | Anfield Index

As jubilant Liverpool fans poured out of Anfield following a last-gasp win over Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, one supporter offered up the perfect line for journalists hastily knocking their copy into the shape.

Turning to the press box with a grin as wide as the Mersey, he loudly declared: “Make sure you call us the devil’s club!”

Many of the media present will have agreed with the sentiment given they have been forced into late rewrites after each of the Reds’ last five games.

But as tempting as it is to suggest that these wins owe everything to a pact with Lucifer - or indeed plain old luck, as many rival fans claim - the reality is that there is far more to Liverpool’s tendency for picking up the points against the odds.

For starters, it is perhaps worth noting that their fixture list at the start of the season has not exactly lent itself to convincing victories.

Bournemouth have won every game thus far apart from their trip to Anfield, while Newcastle conceded all three of the goals they have shipped this term to Liverpool.

Arsenal, too, have only conceded to the Reds, and Burnley suffered their first home defeat since May 19 of last year in going down to Arne Slot’s side.

Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid’s battling qualities were on full show in a game they had no right to make close given the level of the two sides’ performances.

But that Liverpool were in a position to score a late winner in each of these fixtures owes much to the fact that at no point were they trailing their opponents.

And most crucially of all, they also have a manager in Slot who will always push to grab the late crucial goal.

Against Bournemouth and Newcastle, forward-thinking substitutes Federico Chiesa and Rio Ngumoha were the ones to grab the winners.