Salah Shines as Liverpool Overcome Challenge at St Mary’s | OneFootball

Liverpool Clinch Tough Victory at St Mary’s, Salah Delivers Once Again

You want to phrase this in exactly the right way. That was a lot harder than it needed to be and it was entirely of our own making. In the context of the season you hope that could be one of those matches where you look back on and say it was key. Three points and no injuries were all that were asked for and fortunately that was what we got. The table at the end was brilliant, as was a certain Egyptian king who bailed us out for the umpteenth time. The travelling kop sang and we all felt the ultimate sense of relief after the additional eight minutes. We look at the lessons learned on a difficult victory at St Mary’s.

Photo: IMAGO

Pay Tribute To The King In Every Way

Liverpool were behind late and you wondered if it was going to be one of those days. Fortunately, Mo Salah decided to win the game himself for another week and remind his paymasters what they are risking in seven months time. His first, the equaliser having gone behind was well controlled despite the location of Alex McCarthy and you could see that the Egyptian king was in the mood. He buried the penalty for the winner late on too and if anything he’ll be absolutely fuming he skied one then rattled the post with his final chance. FSG are in town and let’s hope they’re getting ready to write a big cheque.

Gravenberch Crucial Again

The middle of the pitch seemed so open today and Liverpool were lucky that Ryan Gravenberch was on top form again. He got the assist for Salah’s opener, but more importantly he won blocks and tackles galore, as well as driving the team forward at times. He completed 74/80 passes (93% pass completion) and crested four chances in this one. We all had our hearts in our ours on two occasions, when Lallana left one on him in the first half and then he got rattled late on. He’s central to everything at the moment and we need to manage the Dutch youngster carefully. Brilliant again.

So Many Other Talking Points

That was never in the penalty area despite what anyone wants to suggest and the repays showed it wasn’t. The ref should also have sent Adam Lallana off judging by the replay and sky agreed during half-time. Virgil and Ibou both picked the same game to register their worst performance of the season, but they’ve more than earned a pass card each and we know the captain had minor issues before. A strike from Szoboszlai may help his confidence somewhat and it was brilliant finish. There’s still a few concerns about Robertson, but we can all move on and quickly with this one.