Salah’s continued presence sets up Liverpool to make rebuild a little easier | Jonathan Wilson
As victory over West Ham shows, if Van Dijk also stays, Arne Slot can focus on refining squad rather than filling two voids
A flinch towards the ball that drew in Ollie Scarles, a duck to get out of the way of it and a spin and burst that took him away from the 19-year-old. Perhaps his cross on the run with the outside of his left foot was intended for Diogo Jota rather than Luis Díaz, who converted, but it hardly mattered. At the very least the ball had been delivered with an awkward shape that took it away from the goalkeeper into an extremely dangerous area. And it wasn’t about the cross anyway; it was about the turn.
It may be that in two years’ time as a 35-year-old Mohamed Salah clanks about, huffing and puffing, slowing down attacks and generally getting in the way, there will be questions asked about why Liverpool gave him a two-year extension. But nobody at Anfield on Sunday was doubting the deal. It’s not just that this was Salah’s 55th goal involvement of the season, it was the nature of that spin, the imagination and the execution; there are very few players who could conceive of such a move, let alone pull it off. Even if Salah’s legs do begin to fail him, having a few months more of that improvisational potential feels worth it.
