Salah soars, while Man U stumbles
There seemed to be no route to the goal for Mohamed Salah when he received the ball at a standing start just inside the area with three opponents around him.
The Liverpool forward is in the form of his life, though, and after a series of feints, deft touches and shoulder drops, Salah somehow created enough room to give himself a chance with his trusty left foot.
That he was going to finish off another staggering individual goal was never in doubt.
“Come on, we all see it. Who is better than him right now?” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp posed about Salah after his star player’s latest wonder strike in a 5-0 thrashing of Watford in the English Premier League on Saturday.
“We don’t have to talk about what (Cristiano) Ronaldo and (Lionel) Messi did for world football, and how long they were really dominant. But in the moment it’s clear there is nobody better than (Salah).”
Salah in this kind of form — he has scored in each of his last eight games for Liverpool — is the last player Ronaldo and his current team, Manchester United, will want to face given the sad state of its defence.
United will head into next weekend’s match at Old Trafford against archrival Liverpool reeling from a 4-2 loss at Leicester that raised more questions about the direction the team is heading under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
In its last seven games in all competitions, United has won just twice — and they came courtesy of winning goals in the 89th minute in one and the fifth minute of stoppage time in the other.
Solskjaer suggested the loss at King Power Stadium, thanks to late goals by Jamie Vardy and Patson Daka, could spark something of an overhaul in his side.
“We have had too many games where we have lost points, so we need to look at the whole set-up and balance of the team,” Solskjaer said, “and maybe something has to give.”
A four-point gap has opened up between United, which dropped to fifth, and secondplaced Liverpool, which remained a point behind Chelsea after its hard-fought 1-0 win at Brentford. Manchester City also won, 2-0 over Burnley, to stay in third place.