As I watched Atalanta fans dancing down the cobbled streets of Bergamo’s stunning Citta Alta late into the night after one of their greatest recent accomplishments, I realised something that doesn’t happen very often – I was right.
Last summer Liverpool supporters were incandescent with rage after I merely suggested the club had missed a trick turning down a potentially gamechanging £200m from Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ittihad to make the Mohamed Salah king of the Arab world.
What has transpired is exactly why I suggested such a bold call. With Liverpool chasing the game, 1-0 up in their quarter-final second leg in Bergamo but trailing 3-0 in the tie, Jurgen Klopp hooked his side’s top Premier League goalscorer of all time in the 66th minute, in precisely the type of match the club rebuffed Saudi advances for.
Salah’s moment to decide crucial encounters, as he has made his forte down the Anfield years, came late in the first half at the Stadio di Bergamo. Had he scored, Liverpool surely would have gone on to complete another remarkable European turnaround akin to their 2019 Barcelona heroics.
Clean through on goal, Atalanta goalkeeper Juan Musso went far too early, leaving Salah with all the time in the world to loft the ball over the stranded stopper to breathe new life into the Jurgen Klopp farewell tour.
Instead, he inexplicably didn’t get enough on it, feathering a tame effort well wide of the mark to ensure Klopp’s final European club football encounter ended with nothing more than a meek surrender in northern Italy, capping a disastrous and damaging week.
As happens to anyone turning 32 in a few months, Salah is on the wane. After another performance littered with missed chances and errant passes, so too is his value.
After returning from an unusually long injury layoff by his standards, he has no goals from open play in his last five, from 16 shots at goal. In his previous match before that barren run, against Brighton, the Egyptian had the most shots by a single player in one Premier League game in the last eight years, but scored only once.
“I’m not particularly concerned,” Klopp claimed when asked by i as to the reasons for Salah’s alarming dip in form. “It’s not that Mo didn’t miss chances before, that’s part of the game.
“The penalty (he scored) was super convincing, then the next chance was unlucky, but it’s not the first time he has missed chances like that. I won’t make a big story of it.”
Salah is only human, but only just. While most strikers endure plentiful dips in form, the Egyptian rarely does. The fact he has looked so impotent at the business end of the season, leaving Liverpool facing the prospect of seeing Klopp off into the sunset with only a League Cup to show for a campaign that promised so much more a matter of weeks ago, makes last summer’s stubbornness seem somewhat foolish.
It is true, Al-Ittihad will almost certainly come back in the summer – they are still sure a figure of Salah’s stature can change the Middle Eastern footballing landscape – but with increased bargaining power. If they return with an offer even close to the £200m mark, they really do have more money than sense.
Without Salah there is no Klopp and without Klopp there is no Salah. The pair are intrinsically linked to the German’s trophy-laden success on Merseyside, but sometimes the head has to rule the heart.
A fee of £200m, in a world where Liverpool do not have the spending power to match Manchester City, could have been reinvested wisely by a club who more often than not get it right in the transfer market.
Losing Salah would have been a huge blow, but Liverpool’s other current forward options could have shouldered the goalscoring burden – as they did to great success in Salah’s injury absence – if no direct replacement was found immediately, certainly enough to secure a third-place finish in the Premier League and win the Carabao Cup.
Salah could still inspire Liverpool to the title before the end of the campaign – he is more than capable – but from what we saw in Bergamo, he doesn’t not seem to have the fire in the belly to go again in three days’ time.
Ordinarily, warding off suitors for your best players is a no-brainer. But an offer of £200m made Salah’s situation a very different decision. One, we are seeing now, Liverpool got wrong.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/eL08A2a
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