The pass was on. Everyone could see it.
The man on the ball surely could, even as he raced forward at full pelt, seats clattering in the away end as anticipation built.
Play it! Play him in! Play it!
Mohamed Salah didn’t play it. He didn’t look left. He didn’t slide the ball into the path of Roberto Firmino, as he surely had to. He ignored his team-mate’s lung-busting run and went solo.
He scored. His 50th Premier League goal. He’d waited eight games to score it; an eternity. Liverpool beat Southampton because of Salah’s goal.
Because of Salah’s selfishness.
Salah’s selfishness was on the agenda after Liverpool’s last game, too. Maybe it says something about the Reds’ progress under Jurgen Klopp that a 3-0 win at Burnley could be turned into a debate about team harmony and the relationship between two of its best players. What else is there left to say about this team?
Let’s get this straight for starters: there is no conflict between Salah and Sadio Mane. They share a close relationship, on and off the pitch, and the issue which led Mane to snap after being substituted at Turf Moor was forgotten by the time the pair had returned to the dressing room.
Mane, understandably, had been irked at not receiving what looked like a simple pass from Salah.
With the game at 3-0, and with both Mane and Firmino already on the scoresheet, the Egyptian again looked to go solo, only to be denied by a covering Burnley defender. A few moments later, having been replaced by Divock Origi, Mane made his feelings perfectly clear. He wasn’t happy.
“I quite like that,” said Jordan Henderson, his captain. Henderson himself had received a volley from Mane, but laughed when it was suggested that he and Salah may have a problem.
“That’s just us pushing each other all the time,” he told reporters. “I think we need that.”
Goal
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