Liverpool fell to a deserved defeat at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon, with far too many of the Reds’ players slumping far below the levels they’d shown in recent weeks.
It was a particularly frustrating day for Mo Salah, whose record of scoring in every match this season was ended on what was a below-par performance from him overall.
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Speaking on punditry duty for Premier Sports, Damien Delaney was critical of the 32-year-old over his erroneous decison-making in the final third as a number of promising openings came and went without reward.
The ex-Crystal Palace defender said of our number 11 (via CaughtOffside): “His decision-making was poor today. Coming inside, couple of misplaced passes, that [highlights] package could’ve gone on for another 30 seconds, such was the regularity of him giving the ball away.”
One particular second-half moment from Salah summed up his strange off-day and justified Delaney’s criticism, when the Liverpool forward delayed a cross despite having several teammates in good positions in the penalty area, and the eventual delivery was overhit.
It was a passage of play which, in the words of Sky Sports reporter Laura Hunter, elicited ‘groans from the Kop‘ – a sound which was heard all too often this afternoon, but the fans couldn’t be blamed for feeling annoyed over what transpired on the pitch.
The Egyptian attempted five dribbles today and succeeded with only one (Sofascore), a poor return which captured just how head-scratching a performance it was for him.
We’ve come to expect so much better from an experienced, world-class player in Salah, but hopefully it was nothing more than a rare off-day from our number 11. History suggests that he’ll quickly get back on the horse, though, and hopefully he might take his frustrations out on AC Milan on Tuesday!
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