Mo Salah’s late penalty away at Burnley in the Premier League more than just secured 3 points for Liverpool: it sent a message…
I LIKED THE BIT where Mo Salah scored the penalty. Not because he scored the penalty and Liverpool won again and broke the hearts of those who foolishly said that Liverpool can’t keep winning games late, but because of how he did it. He did it like that.
Every time he takes a penalty I run a silent dialogue with him. ‘Score this one. You’re bound to miss one at this point, but it can’t be this one. Put this one away and Charlie Adam the next one if you want. I won’t mind. Just don’t miss this one. Go ‘ed, Mo.’ It seems to do the trick.
So, with boos and catcalls crying out around East Lancashire, I love how he stepped up and did that. Not a cushioned shot off the post. No playing the percentages to get the Champions over the line. None of that. Just ‘I’ve had an awful game. People think I might miss this. Now, how hard can I hit this thing?’
Talk about a statement. Emphatic. The chance alone was enough. The rest, a foregone conclusion.
Four games so far then and four different challenges: The most improved team in the league, the hardest non-Mancunian away of the season, the hardest home and now a team who have no interest in two-thirds of their own pitch. Liverpool passed all four tests even though they needed every available minute to do it.
That’s fine. No one looks at your decent exam result and asks what time you got off from the examination hall.
‘They can’t do that every week!’ Can’t we? You just watch us!
And I’m not buying that it was heartbreaking for Burnley. I mean, it was but it was also deserved.
We were all over them from the first whistle and they were lucky enough to end the first-half with eleven men. Luckily for them, PGMOL rules state that all measure of assaults on Alexis Mac Allister are perfectly valid, so that’s that. The Best Referee In The League ™ there, happy to wave a yellow. Of course he was.
I’m also not buying that Liverpool were poor. We were just set a very difficult test from a side playing five at the back and with a deep midfield for company. It’s hard to find any space and all we could do was play in front of them.
It’s hard to look glamorous when Burnley were intent on winning every second ball even when they did nothing with it. Those games are hardly cakewalks. Sometimes you need every minute.
There was a time when Liverpool used to settle for the point with about fifteen minutes to go. There was a time when, as my mate used to put it, Liverpool would ‘equalise first’ and accept the inevitable draw when it arrived.
This Liverpool side, and every one since Jürgen Klopp arrived, doesn’t believe in that and will fight hard against its own luck to get the win. That’s not luck. That’s the difference.
And many of us grew up watching Man Utd doing that for years. Just as you thought they were finally going to lose to a breakaway goal against a lesser team, they’d equalise in the dying minutes. Then when you thought that them not winning was cause enough for celebration, they’d score again. People hated them for that. I certainly did, but I would also always wish that we had that sort of spirit rather than playing out turgid 1-1 draws at home.
On Sunday, Liverpool fought all the way until the lad made a heinous mistake. They knew they’d won even then. Mo Salah wasn’t going to entertain the idea of a pantomime ending. Mo Salah wanted the points. Mo Salah knew he’d get them and did.
I loved that penalty. I love what it stands for. Not just the win, but the message it sends. Empathic.
We’re not messing around with fate here.
