Alexander Isak offers hope of flop-saving partnership in Salah’s house as Liverpool do it again
Maybe it was the motivation of a Big European Night At Anfield, perhaps a hunger to right the wrongs of Atletico Madrid’s extra-time victory in 2020, possibly a bid to prove doubters wrong at the start of this season, or even a case of a club legend letting a record signing know in their first appearance for the club that this is still very much his house, but Mohamed Salah was on one at the start of this game.
It’s testament to his absurd Liverpool career that what Ally McCoist and others have dubbed a “slow start to the season” has featured two goals and an assist in four games. There’s no doubt he’s been off it, just not quite as sharp, leading to inevitable knee-jerk suggestions that this may be his first season of decline at the age of 33.
The search for explanations as to why Salah’s not been at his typical level has seen the fingers of blame pointed at right-backs who aren’t Trent Alexander-Arnold and at Florian Wirtz, for struggling in general after his £100m move but also because unlike Dominik Szoboszlai in that No.10 position, he favours drifting to the left rather than to the right in support of Salah.
In a similar vein to a striker needing one to go in off his backside, Salah got himself an inadvertent assist to break the logjam. And two minutes after his early free-kick came off Andy Robertson to leave Jan Oblak flat-footed as the ball rolled past him and into the corner, Salah scored a very Salah goal before very nearly scoring the Salah goal soon after that.
Although we feel awkward doubting him after yet another stunning midfield performance in which it felt like he half-turned away from each and every Atletico Madrid player at least twice, we’re not wholly convinced Ryan Gravenberch meant the return pass to Salah, which was brilliant if deliberate. But the strength and balance the Egyptian showed under pressure from three opposition defenders before the perfect couple of touches and finish was beautiful.
As his cut inside and curled shot would have been had it nestled in the top corner as we’re programmed to believe will be the case when he takes up that position on the edge of the box. That and another couple of spurned opportunities points to Salah perhaps not quite being right back up to full speed, as was his slight drift away from the centre of the action in this game, though we suspect Arne Slot will be seeing that as positive evidence of a sharing of the attacking load, and the Liverpool boss will have been particularly encouraged by one specific moment of wonderful link-up play between his two nine-figure summer signings.
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Alexander Isak had already displayed his quality through a couple of very sharp turns on the edge of the box before one shot wide and another straight at Oblak, before laying a beautifully weighted pass through for Wirtz after the German had played the ball into his striker having burst from midfield.
Wirtz made the wrong decision having latched onto the return pass, trying to go round Oblak when a dink or slide finish was called for. And there was more proof that it’s not yet clicking for the playmaker in this game – wayward passes and poor touches as well as that fuzzy thinking when a cool head is required.
But he was later involved in a lovely move which saw Salah smash a shot off the post, breaking from midfield before playing a delicate pass with the outside of his foot to set Salah up. And that few seconds of dynamic connection with Isak will be what he, the striker, Slot and the Liverpool fans will be hanging their hats on as a promise for a future in which they can terrorise opposition teams both domestically and in Europe. If not, there’s always Mohamed Salah. Or indeed, Virgil van Dijk.
Letting a two-goal lead slip for the third time this season is only an issue if Liverpool at some stage stop scoring stoppage-time winners. It felt as though their luck had run out after both goals from Marcos Llorente – their conqueror in 2020 – deflected past Alisson, especially as his first had more than a hint of offside about it.
But no, the captain rose in the 92nd minute to send the Anfield crowd into raptures and grant Diego Simeone a slightly early bath after he lost his head on the touchline.
An unsustainable way to win games and titles? Probably. But who cares? Liverpool are the team to watch, for Gravenberch, for Salah, for the blossoming relationship between Isak and Wirtz, for their ability to make life far more difficult for themselves than it need be, for the way they always get there in the end.
