‘Running the show here’ – One Liverpool player left Ian Doyle spellbound in first half v Yokohama | OneFootball

Liverpool are in Japan to take on Yokohama F. Marinos in a pre-season friendly today, and one player in particular has been putting on a performance befitting of the Premier League champions.

Arne Slot went with a very strong starting XI at the Nissan Stadium, selecting the likes of Mo Salah, Florian Wirtz, Virgil van Dijk and – making his first appearance in a red shirt – the newly-signed Hugo Ekitike.

The Reds were dominant for large spells of the opening 45 minutes against their J1 League opponents, who had their work cut out trying to contain one man who was always likely to pose a major threat.

Salah was ‘running the show’ for Liverpool in the first half

As Liverpool sought to break the deadlock midway through the first half, Mo Salah was giving an exhibition of world-class passing, playing two particularly marvellous balls to Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai in quick succession.

After the second of those, Liverpool Echo journalist Ian Doyle wrote on the website’s live commenary (11:55): ‘Salah is running the show here with his long balls over the top. This time it’s Szoboszlai away, but the pitch appears to beat him too as he prepares to have a shot.’

(Photo by Yu Chun Christopher Wong/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images)

Salah already looks like he’ll enjoy another prolific season!

For the past couple of seasons, the Egyptian King has had a quiet finish to a prolific campaign, with the sheer number of minutes in his legs seemingly catching up with him.

However, the 33-year-old is already showing signs of getting back to his best after enjoying a proper break over the summer, and the passes he played for Gakpo and Szoboszlai in the first half were simply mesmerising.

As Sky Sports reporter Peter Smith noted from Yokohama, Salah – who registered a career-high 18 assists in the Premier League last season – was ‘opening up’ the Japanese side with some ‘wonderful passes’, and it’s not every day that Marinos will come up against a player of such stratospheric ability.

It’ll take some going from Liverpool’s number 11 to match his 2024/25 tally of 34 goals and 23 assists, but we all should know by now that the evergreen forward is a beacon of consistency who might just pull it off!