Forget Salah: Watch what reinvented Liverpool wizard did moments before Bournemouth goal | OneFootball

Liverpool’s first-half penalty will no doubt be extorted for every bit of controversy its worth should the Reds manage to secure all three points on the south coast.

The Merseysiders were facing Andoni Iraola’s in-form Bournemouth outfit on Saturday afternoon, with the hosts doing well to keep out Arne Slot’s side for much of the first 45.

That is, of course, until an unfortunate slip-up from Cherries star Lewis Cook who was adjudged to have clipped Cody Gakpo in the 18-yard-box.

Mo Salah, naturally, was the man entrusted with taking the penalty, which ensured the visitors went into the half-time break one goal up to the good.

Cody Gakpo penalty has inspired controversy

(Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

It’s really worth emphasising the amount of scrutiny this incident received from the team of officials at Stockley Park.

VAR looked into both the contact on the Dutch international and whether the left-sided winger was offside ahead of the call.

If anything, one might be inclined to argue that more was done to disprove the genuine nature of Gakpo’s tumble to the turf than reinforce Darren England’s initial call.

It’s a shame really, given it’s a really good run from the footballer to take advantage of what would have been a potential goalscoring opportunity.

You can catch the clips below, courtesy of NBC Sports & Vsport2:

Arne Slot is getting the most out of Gakpo

We couldn’t possibly adore Jurgen Klopp more, but one area we’re pretty certain our beloved former tactician got wildly wrong was his choice of positioning for Cody Gakpo.

Since Arne Slot’s arrival, the former PSV attacker has undergone a renaissance in the forward line, registering 20 goal contributions (15 goals, five assists) in 34 games (across all competitions).

To put that into context – it’s a goal or assist every 95.8 minutes. In 2023/24, the wide man racked up 22 goal contributions in 3,017 minutes of action at a rate of one goal or assist every 137.13 minutes.

He’s not the only Dutchman to have benefitted from Slot’s magic touch either!

Join our channel of readers on WhatsApp to get the day’s top stories straight to your mobile