SALAH THE TIME LORD
Michael Owen on Anfield’s hero
IKNOW the Liverpool players will have it drummed into their heads that they have a huge task ahead of them this week. And that Jurgen Klopp has to play down the fact that it is Roma rather than Real Madrid or Bayern Munich that they are facing. But we’re allowed to say it: Liverpool had a harder task in the q u a r t e r- f i n a l against Manchester City than they do in the semi against Roma. This is a huge opportunity to get to a seventh European Cup final and to become part of the rich history of the club.
Of course they are playing a very good team. But there would still have been a secret little clench of the fist when Roma came out of the hat. I watched both of the Barcelona-Roma games in the quarter-finals. I have lots of respect for them. They absolutely deserved to beat Barcelona. Over the two legs they were better and they never deserved to lose the first game 4-1. The fact that they could absorb a result like that and still have the belief to win 3- 0 in Roma shows what mental strength they have. But I still believe Liverpool have a better team.
SALAH DWARFS US ALL
MAYBE, as Klopp suggested last week, we shouldn’t be too surprised at the rise and rise of Mohamed Salah. After all, his stats at Roma were impressive, with 19 goals last season. That said, he is beginning to make me and the likes of Robbie Fowler, Fernando Torres and Luis Suarez look average. And I don’t t hink anyone predicted he would score 41 goals by now for the club.
If there is one moment which exemplified the improvement, it was the chipped goal he scored at the Etihad to make it 1-1 against Manchester City in the Champions League quarter-final second leg.
I didn’t have him down as a natural goalscorer at the start of the season. He was still a little like Raheem Sterling: raw and picking the wrong finish. He scored a lot but he missed a lot, too. But that chip against City changed my mind. With great goal- scorers, their mind works slower when they get a chance. Normal human behaviour when there is an accident, a crisis or stressful situation is to talk faster, brea breath heavier and panic. Be i n g one on o n e wi t h a goalkeeper g clearly isn’t as stressful as a genuine trauma. But in professional terms, it can induce anxiety and provoke similar reactions. Yet the best players can repress all of that. Most people’s hearts race given a chance l i ke that. Salah has perfected the art of seeing the game in slow motion, allowing himself time to pick the right finish, even when the real-time speed is 100mph.
FIRMINO PULLS STRINGS
THE PFA team of the year is out and you can understand people opting for Harry Kane above Roberto Firmino. But his undeniable excellence is in danger of being overshadowed by Salah this season and Sadio Mane last season.
The Mane-Firmino-Salah mix is a perfect example of how stats can’t quantify the chemistry of a forward line. We’ve seen countless examples of people trying simply to buy the best players in the world and put them together. But teams are all about combinations and how they work together.
That front three works because of the often unnoticed work of Firmino. He does a superb job out of possession, starting the press and winning the ball back. Take the first goal against Manchester City in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal. Most people when they miss a chance put their hands on their head, look to the gods and moan about it. His reaction to a missed chance wasn’t even a split second. It was faster than that.
He was on it straight away. He nabs the ball, Salah scores and it’s 1-0. There was a microcosm of the season: Salah was the star but, without Firmino, he couldn’t be.
Obviously winning the ball high up the pitch is ideal and a central part of Klopp’s game- plan. There’s less time to react defensively and a shorter distance to goal. Ian Rush was the best I’ve seen at that. People would say to me: ‘Who’s the best defender of all time?’ My first left-field thought is always: ‘Ian Rush’. Because he would sneak up on people, win possession and bang, there was the goal. In Firmino, Liverpool have one of the best defenders since Rush.
WORK ONLY HALF DONE
I’m too young to remember Rome, 1984. I do remember scoring twice against Roma in the Olympic Stadium on our way to the 2001 UEFA Cup win, one of my best memories at Liverpool. But when you’re at the club, the iconic images of 1984, possibly the most demanding of all the European Cup wins in the Seventies and Eighties, given that Liverpool were playing away from home, are always there.
And they will be there in the minds of the Anfield crowd on Tuesday. It doesn’t matter that the majority of the crowd and none of the players would have seen that team. They will know the stories and that engenders belief.
There is no doubt there is something different in the air on a European night at Anfield. And that is the unquantifiable power of history which has been handed down from generation to generation. I t ’s one thing as a professional to be confident. But c o nf i dence c o mes a n d g o e s . Great players have it more often than not but ultimately it i s a feeling which often fluctuates.
But a c l u b ’s history is more like
a belief system which underpins your life. The players will have felt it, seen it, read about it, heard about it. And believe in it. They know Anfield is one of the great stadiums which has hosted these extraordinary nights. I t ’s an e x t r e mel y p o we r f u l psychological boost to have at the back of your mind. You know great things happen there. Perhaps more importantly, it affects your opponents. In their mind is the history and prestige of the club and the stadium. There is a respect and a fear factor there. But it also serves as a motivator for the Liverpool players. They will also know that a semi-final exit isn’t enough to elevate them into the history of the club. It’s only reaching the final and a victory which turns them into lifelong legends. Their work is only partially done at present. And that in itself should be enough to drive them into the final.