Liverpool faces nightmare 'without Salah'

S ALAH IS TOO IMPORTANT

Mohamed Salah has temporarily left Liverpool after the win over Newcastle to attend AFCON 2023 (the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, postponed to January 2024). The bad news for football fans: this year's Africa Cup of Nations will last until February 11, and Salah's Egypt team is likely to go very far in this tournament (Egypt is the number 1 team in terms of achievements at the Africa Cup of Nations). The news... is not so bad: the Premier League does not have many matches in January. The first month of the calendar year is always the priority period for the two cup competitions in England. This year's Premier League has a winter break for the teams (each team gets 2 weeks off).

Salah is too important a factor for Liverpool

Salah is not only shining for his team, he is also the most influential player in the Premier League at the moment. He is leading the scoring list with Erling Haaland (Manchester City - Man.City), leading the number of assists with Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa), and is far ahead of all players in terms of direct participation in scoring (22 goals in 20 matches). Since joining Liverpool (in 2017), Salah has always been the team's number 1 scorer - for 6 consecutive seasons, and this season will probably be the same.

One can imagine Man.City scoring without Haaland. In other words, Man.City have shown their ability to win without their number one scorer in recent matches. Liverpool's "no Salah" problem will be much worse. On the other hand, the story here is also related to the style of play. Salah is the type of striker who plays wide and moves into the middle very well (so he is good at both scoring and assisting), not a pure striker who operates in the penalty area like Haaland. Without Salah, it is likely that Liverpool will have to attack in a different way, not simply using a good striker to replace him.

WHO IS AT LIVERPOOL NOW?

On the one hand, coach Jurgen Klopp reassured fans, in a perfunctory way: losing a good player is a normal situation that every team has to face at some point in top football. But on the other hand, Klopp admitted that he could not prepare well enough to deal with it. Everyone knows that the African Cup of Nations will be held in January 2024, but how to prepare a specific "plan B" is another matter. Should Liverpool have to practice without Salah since October? Moreover, even if they did, Klopp would not know for sure who would be his number 1 striker this month!

Liverpool's current strikers include Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo. Nunez has moments of brilliance, but also moments of unbelievable missed scoring opportunities. It's impossible to predict what will happen if Liverpool uses this "sunny in the morning, rainy in the afternoon" striker. In the situation of having to change tactics, with imperfect forces, Klopp can rely more on Jota, because this player has an intelligent playing style. But Jota is not favored by Anfield fans. Gakpo and Diaz seem to be inferior. Liverpool can also use Harvey Elliott. This is an attacking midfielder, but can play higher. He is also the only left-footed attacking player, like Salah.

From now until February 11, Liverpool will play Bournemouth, Chelsea, Arsenal, Burnley in the Premier League. For now, the match against Arsenal in the FA Cup this weekend can provide a preliminary look at a Liverpool without Salah. If in trouble, Klopp will have the opportunity to make adjustments right away in the next match: against Fulham in the first leg of the League Cup semi-final (return leg on January 24). Some statistics for reference: in Liverpool's 3 losses this season (counting all competitions), Salah was absent 2 times. The only match Liverpool "lost with Salah" was when they had only 9 players on the field (against Tottenham in the Premier League).

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