Is there anything sweeter than a last-minute winning goal?Bob Mortimers tea, perhaps, but there is very little that tops it when it comes to football. And while such moments have been relatively plentiful for Liverpool over the years with the Reds amassing more of them in the Premier League than any other side they remain a rare commodity.But as unusual as injury time winners are, goals are more common later in games than at the beginning of them. Take 2019/20, if one were to pick a league season entirely at random. There were 59 Premier League goals in the opening nine minutes of the 380 matches played, but 66 in the 90th minute or later.This type of pattern extends across the whole of the first and second halves of matches too. In the last five full seasons of Premier League football, 44.6 per cent of the 5,212 goals were scored prior to the interval, with the remaining 55.4 per cent netted once the half time oranges had been consumed.This disparity obviously makes perfect sense. At the start of a match, all 22 players are fresh and have their managers instructions ringing in their ears. With plenty of time remaining, there is no need for them to take unnecessary risks.But as the match wears on and points may be slipping away, teams have to gamble. Managers can make tactical and personnel changes, with player fitness levels also perhaps doing as much as anything else to determine the outcome of a match.Read MoreRelated ArticlesRead MoreRelated ArticlesLiverpool therefore deserve enormous credit because ahead of their trip to west London to face Brentford, they havent conceded a single second half goal in any of their seven matches in all competitions this season.As if that was not remarkable enough, factor in that they have entered five of the second halves with a lead and it makes their clean sheets following the interval even more incredible. The only team who werent desperate for a goal after the break against the Reds in 2021/22 were 10-man Chelsea, as they were happy to head home with a point, and though AC Milan went into the second half ahead, they later trailed for the final 21 minutes of the game.While Liverpool have taken this to extreme lengths this season, in the league they have been performing at almost this level for quite some time. Back in February they conceded seven second-half goals in just two matches, allowing Manchester City to score four times at Anfield before conspiring to let in three goals in seven mad minutes at Leicester.But in the 19 league matches since, Jürgen Klopps side have conceded just four goals after half time. Only eight of their 1,101 streaks of this length in the Premier League era have seen them allow fewer second half goals, and the last of them was back in 2008/09.Read MoreRelated ArticlesRead MoreRelated ArticlesIt hasnt all been perfect. This most recent half-season of matches has seen 1-0 defeats to both Fulham and Chelsea thanks to goals scored in the opening 45 minutes, and the Merseyside derby loss to Everton is part of this batch too (with the Blues scoring once in each half). Leeds and Newcastle also netted late equalisers in this period, so what few goals there have been have largely come at a cost.However, its clear that if a team can restrict the number of second half goals they concede then they will obviously see out far more wins than they will drop points.Focusing on 2021/22, Liverpools shut-outs after half time have almost all been deserved, as they have conceded just two Opta-defined clear-cut chances, and none in any of the last five second halves they have played. Even those which did occur only happened once the points were effectively secure anyway. In the opening game of the season, Ben Gibson saw his big opportunity saved by Alisson Becker in the 87th minute when Liverpool were already three goals up. A similar fate befell Ashley Barnes, who failed to convert when clean through in the 94th minute of Burnleys 2-0 defeat at Anfield. When winning the league two seasons ago, Liverpool played 11 second halves in which they didnt concede a clear-cut chance to their opponents, but never more than two in a row, while last season there were 10 but again no streak of three successive matches where this happened.As Brentford have only averaged 1.6 big chances per Premier League match in 2021/22, this trend may continue for at least one more match, but its certainly not sustainable forever. Even so, Liverpool have displayed their ability to restrict the chance quality of the teams who have mostly been chasing results against them, and thats a very healthy attribute to have in their armoury for this season.Read MoreRelated ArticlesRead MoreRelated Articles