Liverpool can thrive in Mohamed Salah’s absence with a timely return and a lesson from the past

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A title race is being stripped of its most potent gamers. Erling Haaland has been the most recognisable spectator at Manchester City’s latest matches. The injured Norwegian nonetheless leads the race for the Golden Boot. But the man tied in second can also be joint-top of the assists desk. Coupled with his excellent type, it provides Mohamed Salah a case to be named the footballer of the first half of the season.

Liverpool prime the desk after 19 video games. Salah will depart after their twentieth, going to the Africa Cup of Nations following Monday’s match in opposition to Newcastle. He may very well be away for greater than a month, a spell that features journeys to Arsenal in each the FA Cup and the Premier League, alongside with twin legs of the Carabao Cup semi-final. The hazard is that Liverpool fail on three fronts with out their most feared ahead.

But Jurgen Klopp has a can-do mentality, an encouraging precedent from the past and an assault that obtained totally different sorts of scoring boosts at Burnley on Boxing Day. Darwin Nunez ended his 12-game aim drought at Turf Moor. Diogo Jota struck on his return from harm, a comeback after a month out that was before Klopp anticipated. “The return of each of the boys is super-important but Diogo especially,” the supervisor mentioned.

He must improvise and adapt now. Beyond assembling a five-strong group of high-calibre attackers, there was no technique he may put in place to cowl for Salah’s absence. “Each long-term plan I could have had depends massively on who is available so why should I think in October who I can use when Mo is away when I have no clue who is available?” Klopp mentioned. “We would have solutions today; I hope we have that after the Newcastle game as well.”

An harm would come at a better value if Salah is absent for six weeks. “Everybody was quite positive about our five options but I don’t think we had it that often,” mentioned Klopp: Jota and Cody Gakpo have been sidelined, Luis Diaz has missed video games for private causes and solely Salah and Nunez have been out there all through. “Especially with the amount of games we play, it is so important these boys can rotate,” Klopp mentioned.

Salah’s standing as a fixture means the different 4 have tended to alternate for the roles in the center and on the left. None of the different 4, by desire, is a proper winger; these duties may go to Diaz until Harvey Elliott, who has spent a lot of his season in midfield however excelled as a winger in final week’s 5-1 thrashing of West Ham, operates additional ahead.

In one other respect, Jota can assume a specific pertinence as Liverpool search for a alternative to Salah. The Portuguese is the second prime scorer and the solely certainly one of the forwards with a higher likelihood conversion charge than the Egyptian. Of the quintet, they’re the solely two who’ve outperformed their anticipated objectives. Jota may assume the duties as the finisher in chief for the subsequent few weeks.

He has a confirmed capability to search out house in the field that Klopp loves. “His football brain, he is a very smart footballer,” he mentioned, outlining Jota’s qualities. “The game is blessed with some of these players who really understand the game on a different level and he is one of them, definitely. It gives him the chance to see the situations slightly earlier, to adapt to different things the opponent is doing a little bit quicker. On top of that, he is both-footed, a great finisher. I love the Diogo story: he is back and I hope he is back for the next 10 years but Diogo missed chances as well.”

Klopp has significantly fond recollections of two the Portuguese took: a brace in a Carabao Cup semi-final in 2022 constituted certainly one of his favorite video games in opposition to Arsenal, got here at a floor Liverpool will go to twice in the subsequent few weeks and got here with out their two main marksmen at the time, who had been each in Africa.

Then, minus Sadio Mane and Salah, they recorded 5 wins and a draw in a interval when Jota and Roberto Firmino had been joined in the ahead line by, amongst others, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kaide Gordon and Takumi Minamino. Fabinho began scoring from midfield. Liverpool confirmed their resourcefulness and powered onwards.

“It is not the first time,” Klopp recalled. “It is a really at least very average situation that you lose your goalscorer but we had it even worse in the past when Sadio and Mo left and we came somehow through it. Traditionally, one of them went pretty far in the tournament, which made it worse. We have to get through this. We have to deal with it and we will.”

Once once more, a crew who usually win due to Salah have to search out a technique to win with out him.