Cody Gakpo had sent a distinct signal to Mo Salah just before the latter doubled Liverpool’s lead against Aston Villa at Anfield tonight.
The Reds were tentatively holding onto a 1-0 advantage in the final 10 minutes and had to withstand an uncomfortable spell of pressure from the visitors before the Egyptian put the game to bed on the 84th minute.
Salah was in the right place at the right time to block down an attempted clearing header from Diego Carlos, and suddenly he found himself with almost half of the pitch at his mercy.
Gakpo wanted Salah to lay the ball off to him
The 32-year-old surged towards the penalty area, where he had the option of picking out either Gakpo or Luis Diaz through the middle, but he backed himself to score and duly obliged to net his 10th goal of the season and secure all three points for Liverpool.
Just before our number 11 provided the finish, the Dutch forward held out his arms in a gesture to ask the ball to be squared to him, a justifiable request from his position at the edge of the six-yard box but unnecessary in the end as our Egyptian King did the needful.
Salah does the business yet again!
Had Salah not scored that chance, Gakpo would’ve been raging at him for not squaring the ball to the 25-year-old for what would likely have been a tap-in.
Thankfully the opportunity fell to one of the best players, never mind forwards, in world football and Emi Martinez didn’t stand a chance of saving it.
It was notable that both of Liverpool’s goals tonight came from counterattacks, something we’d seen frequently under Jurgen Klopp but not so much in the early months of Arne Slot’s reign.
With Manchester City losing again earlier in the evening, it didn’t greatly matter how the goals went in for the Reds tonight, just that they did so that we’d capitalise on the champions’ slip-up. Now if we can just get Salah’s contract sorted, we’d really be in a good place going into the winter!
You can view Salah’s goal below, via @footballontnt on X:
Mohamed Salah makes it 2-0
@tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/RMexZlwosS
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) November 9, 2024
