Mo Salah’s appalling performance at Wembley Stadium in the Carabao Cup final shouldn’t take away from the grandiose nature of his record-breaking 2024/25 season.
That said, the Egyptian absolutely won’t be able to leave the English capital with his head held high after a vanishing act against Newcastle was witnessed by thousands.
Dan Burn provided the opener in the first half of action, amid a controversial penalty call, with Alexander Isak doubling the score for the Magpies in the following 45.
There can be no complaints from the Premier League table toppers, given that Eddie Howe’s men have dominated proceedings in London.
Mo Salah delivered a no-show performance vs Newcastle
We want to preface this with the obvious: We absolutely adore Salah and think the club should be doing everything they can to extend his terms at Anfield.
That said, our No.11 did absolutely nothing to help his argument with two successive ineffectual outings in two games of serious import in the Champions League and Carabao Cup.
Sofascore, rather generously in our view, handed the right winger a 6.5/10 rating for his showing against Eddie Howe’s cup-winning side.
Mo Salah was largely invisible throughout, failing to register a single shot or attempt (never mind complete) a dribble down the right flank.
The footballer’s other supporting statistics hardly helped salvage what was a dismal performance in the offensive third:
→ 23 touches
→ 13/17 passes completed (76%)
→ 0 shots
→ 1/1 dribbles completed
→ 2/2 ground duels won
→ 0/1 aerial duels won
→ Lost possession 6x
Gary Neville noticed strange Salah occurence
The strangeness of the performance didn’t go unnoticed as far as Gary Neville, on comms for Sky Sports, was concerned.
“I’ve never seen Mo Salah as quiet as I have seen him in this game,” the former Manchester United star was quoted by BBC Sport.
“He has had three touches, 25 minutes into this second half.”
Perhaps more concerning is the fact Salah hasn’t registered a goal contribution from open play since a 2-0 win over Newcastle at the end of February.
It may simply be a bad patch for the former Roma man, which we can, of course, allow in a season that has otherwise yielded 54 goal contributions in 43 games (across all competitions).
That reason, and that reason alone, may be enough for Arne Slot to keep his cool.
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Slot got his team selection Wrong again depending on his subs to dig him out,dosent work all the time,hadent the Balls to take salah off,sign of weakness,who would start jota before Nunez in the wide open spaces of wembley ,robinson is costing Liverpool .
Should of started with world’s best goalie and how jota and nunez get a game infront of chiesa is mysterious
Totally agree why would you not play your best 11 in a final.
This decision alone shows sloths in experience and hell be lucky to win the league now idiot
Totally agree, lack of seriousness started with the Confused Coach hence can’t blame the players as they followed their Boss’s footsteps to avoid controversy.
I think mate you are just looking for an excuse to have a dig at the Manager. It was every player on that pitch. If he took Salah off you would have been the first to call him, that joke should have been subbed after 10 minutes but again you moan about the decision the Manager made. I bet you thought he was amazing a month ago. Also when have you seen Chiesa play to make a comment like that. The whole team are crap.
Starting to look like we have had new manager syndrome and now the wheels have fallen off . The system we play is horrendous possession based football can be good with the right players but we don’t have them too many players look like traffic cones static and the football is so boring worst football since Graeme souness. SLOT has been found out
I agree mate
Slot had the world in his hands now his inexcusable awful team selections costing us it all
It is the worst soccer I have ever seen Liverpool play in a very big whole. Slot needs to wake early & start prepping for next season – otherwise 25/26 season will b one to forget
Remember Brendan Rogers..
We are having a repeat of him..
Liverpool will be dead next season…
Wow, can we turn a manager this quick
Please put some blame on our world class stars. This is not how LFC fans behave. The same squad could have won the cup on a different day. Boys have been tearing it up the whole year. We just don’t have the sqaud to compete for everything. YNWA
Totally agree mate.
Slot has us top of prem, in a final, cl qualifies unbeaten, without making a signing and fans are moaning, when most would accept cl qualification for next year… wtf! The team looks tired, maybe he’s played too few players, easy to say, but he knows better than most of us. Slot has been amazing…acknowledge it.
I quite agree the wrong goal-keeper was on the pitch it’s Alyson all the way for me.
Nunez should have started as well.
You should definitely have your best 11 men starting in a final.
Some of Newcastles players are monsters though, I’ve never seen so many tall players in one team.
I.agree totally. Allison should be in goal. Kallahan is too timid a keeper. Chiesa is a skilled player which everyone can see. Don’t know why he’s never been given game time.
when did slot sign Kallahan LOL
Four attrocious games like the one we watched yesterday, Arsenal will wrestle the league out of Liverpool hands. Against PSG they were dominated in the midfield but the blind coach did not see that. Again against New Castle we were dominated in the midfield, this time the coach decided to dismantle it instead of changing the tactical approach. If your cannot wrestle control of midfield how do you hope to get the balls upfront.
Totally agree, lack of seriousness started with the Confused Coach hence can’t blame the players as they followed their Boss’s footsteps to avoid controversy.
How quick we are to turn on our coach and team yes we aren’t playing with the intensity we were at but credit to PSG and Newcastle they were both up for it. The intensity of the EPL and Champions league is relentless and there is no rest. Congratulations to PSG and Newcastle for their preformances and get behind our boys and Boss to summon the energy to close out what has been an incredible season and make it 30 titles. YNWA
Our Coaches should moved with time and have faith in our junior players and elevate them one/two at time to enable them to gel with the senior players not what we did against the small Plymouth. Roma wasn’t built in a day hence building will not come knocking at your door steps but you have to find it yourself. We regard our junior players as young but go scouting for same age group from the competition. Confusing !
When I saw that the best goalkeeper is on the bench, I already knew we losing. Along with tiredness of the entire team, we deserved what we got. This situation has developed because FSG did not see the need to strengthen the team. Other teams are gonna us off and we’ll be lucky to win the premier league.
What does it takes for Elliot (with his penetrating passes that often splits up opposition defenses) to make the first team instead coming in the dying minutes to try to rescue a lost cause?? There’s no urgency in our team even we were 2 nothing down!
Salah’s loss of form coincided with the month of Ramadhan (from 1 March onwards). I assume Salah and Konate were fasting during that time. Hence the loss in stamina/speed/pace. By early April, things should normalize.
One other point, please go back to earlier this season, do any of you who criticize Slot now expected Liverpool to go this far? I think all the other EPL teams would love to be where Liverpool is now in the League.. 12 points ahead of Arsenal whose focus is probably on the UCL match with Real Madrid. I don’t think Arsenal can string together 10 wins in a row to end the rest of their EPL matches.. (what is their longest streak this year?)
Do not throwvyhe babe with bath water. Yes liverpool played dismally on a very important day and modt agree that team selection was wrong on the day. Teams also study how LFP plays and plan around certain players. Arne Slot seems to loose his tactical composure at some times but LFC players needed to improvise to counter New Castle. We are on thd right course to win the premiership we have good space to loose and draw once but still win the premiership
Absolute crock of sh.. blaming Salah’s poor form in Ramadan. He never turns up in finals. He is gassed from being overplayed, not from fasting. Plus sportsmen get exemptions during Ramadan. Do some research before making baseless comments.
Whole team is running on empty but Man City won a treble using 20 players. We have no excuses. Virgil needs to do more as a captain and we are missing Trent, he automatically puts teams on the back foot because they are petrified of the damage he can cause. Robertson is a dead horse and Diaz Jota and Nunez are the three stooges. Between them 3 goals in 41 games. Disgraceful.
Not Slot’s fault. Shameful how quick you turn on him. Still top of the league. By a mile.