Liverpool were forced to fight tooth and nail to get three points against Sheffield United this evening.
In some quarters tonight’s game had been billed as a straightforward three points. But this is the Premier League, nothing is ever easy.
In truth, it started ominously right from the first whistle. Liverpool really should have been behind inside a minute, but Caoimhin Kelleher superbly kept out James McAtee’s back post effort.
From there, the Reds improved, with Darwin Nunez in particular being a menace. But after Nunez got a fortuitous opener, Liverpool went to sleep.
Having seen his team allow Sheffield United to come back with an equaliser, Jurgen Klopp took decisive action. Strangely, the manager took off Mohamed Salah with around half an hour to play. And, as you might expect, Mo wasn’t happy.
Mo Salah ‘not happy’ with substitution
How often do you see this happen? No matter the score line or the game state, Salah usually stays on. However, given his performance and the packed schedule, you can understand why Klopp took him off.
In fairness to Mo, the manager could have hauled off five or six of Salah’s teammates and it wouldn’t have been unfair.
Ryan Gravenberch was particularly bad and deserved to be taken off along with the Egyptian. There were a couple of others who could have been hauled off.
But, for reasons that may become clear after the game, it was Salah who was chosen.
And watching on for BBC Sport, pundit Dion Dublin shared what he noticed from the 31-year-old as he entered the technical area.
“Mo Salah went into the technical area and had a half handshake with the manager – he was not happy,” Dublin observed.
Why was Mo Salah taken off
Salah was actually a little lucky to stay on the pitch on Sunday against Brighton. Having missed a number of chances early in the game, he could quite easily have been hooked.
But, as he showed against the Seagulls, the £34m man is also always good for a goal. No matter how he’s playing, you can bank on him getting one.
We’ll never know if the same would have happened against Sheffield United this evening.
He may not have been happy about, but seeing as Liverpool went on to get two more goals and a big three points, we don’t think Mo can have too many complaints.