Liverpool star Mohamed Salah would have dominated the Champions League.
Jurgen Klopp met his match in Diego Simeone, and while their two football worlds collided there could only be one victor. Even if it was anti-football.
That’s a great shame, because it robbed Liverpool fans the chance to watch Mohamed Salah in action against the best in Europe.
During the first Champions League final under Klopp, Real Madrid hero/villain Sergio Ramos took the King down and dislocated his shoulder, while the second was a stilted affair and Salah struggled to really make his mark.
This is one of the world’s best forwards trying to leave his name buried in this competition’s history, but a goalkeeping error by Adrian robbed us all of that.
Liverpool would have had RB Leipzig up next, and the way they play football would have left space down the wings for him to exploit. They set up in a fairly narrow, 4-2-2-2 formation and would want to press hard and attack.
This would have given the attack some space to exploit, while the speed of Klopp’s counter-attacks would have worked well against the Bundesliga side.
Every great competition needs moments from world-class players to make it great. You think about the best World Cups from the past and they’re always put in the context of who dominated. Maradona, Original Ronaldo, Michael Owen.
Mohamed Salah needs the Champions League and the Champions League needs Mohamed Salah.
In terms of the next Premier League season, our star players having a break is probably the best thing that could happen. They’re now on a two-week holiday, before the team will have one week working from home before a return to Anfield.
This’ll help them recover, freshen up and return to the fresh campaign with more rest than they would have had otherwise.