Mo Salah and Liverpool’s world-class contingent continue to shine through for The Reds, and supporters shouldn’t take it for granted…
LAST week, Joe Pasquale showed me a photo of his piles.
I mean, that might not be entirely relevant for what’s to follow but, you have to admit, it’s a hell of an opening statement.
It’s true, though. The former ‘jungle thing’ winner was the guest at a Richard Herring podcast recording and showed his host the evidence of his discomfort before assaulting the front row with the same image.
Sometimes you don’t recognise the oddness of an occasion until you say it out loud.
On Sunday afternoon, I witnessed a Brentford player trying to usher a ball out for a throw-in, getting bored with it, and helped it over the line. Throw-in to Liverpool. I’ve never seen that before. I’ve also never seen a goalkeeper trying to take a goal kick to convince the ref that it wasn’t a goal. Nice try, mate.
That goal was met with muted celebration due to the usual VAR farrago, but that’s the game now. You’ve got to laugh. Paul Tierney got more songs than Diogo Jota, who casually knocked in his best Liverpool goal.
I love Diogo and think he’s overlooked by many. After all you can’t beat a slalom run and finish and he’s started making that the norm this season. Such a great finisher.
As for the other two goals…
I listened to Damian Kavanagh on the Post-Match Show on the drive home Sunday night. While talking about Kostas Tsimikas he said that he may well be replacing a man who may well be ‘the greatest left back in our history’. That too was a hell of a statement, though his did not include crevices.
The greatest in our history. The greatest left back in our history still plays for us today.
Damian and I are of the same vintage, born in the same hospital on the same day. Brought up on Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush and then John Barnes, Robbie Fowler, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres before the modern age. People like us tend to look at those names while assessing who the greatest was.
Dalglish redefined football for me. I was at the age where heroes are just that. Barely human. He could change things due to sheer will and do it with that grin which showed he loved it as much as we did. Even when Rushie was breaking records all over the shop, it was still Kenny. Kenny held the mystique. He’ll always be the one for me.
But then you look at Mo Salah.
It’s difficult for us greyer lads (me, not Damian) to hold modern players up to the bastion we’ve built in our minds. And yet.
Andy Robertson could well be our greatest ever left back. I feel guilty even typing that and would like to apologise to Steve Nicol. Equally, I’m just coming to the point where I have to admit that Alisson Becker is usurping Ray Clemence in my heart.
Oh, he still sends my heart into spirals when he’s dropping his shoulder to strikers in his own penalty area, but he’s just an incredible goalkeeper and, to my mind at least, the best in the world. I might be preaching to the choir here.
But Mo.
Ben Johnson made a great point on him a few weeks ago after the derby when he said that Mo was probably the least effective striker of the three that day and still walked off the pitch with two goals. Two more goals. Now he’s up to 200 in a red shirt.
Yes, we all cling to our favourites when talking about the pantheon of greatness, but no one can deny that he’s in the conversation. That just seems mad when you look at the names in that list.
And this is the same lad who played for Chelsea in the ‘slip’ game. I was a bit surprised when we bought him. I thought he was shite. I was equally concerned that that Roma goalie we were linked with had just had five goals put past him in an hour during the Champions League semi-final of 2018. Two of them were scored by Mo Salah.
Mo Salah plays for Liverpool. How great is that?
Arguably the greatest forwards many of us will ever see plays for us. Even when we’re struggling a bit, it’s important to remember that that’s still the case. Even when we’re furious with all of them.
I worry that I don’t always appreciate that. That I don’t sometimes take him for granted. If he, Robbo and Alisson are the best ever in their positions then we have to live it live.
Isn’t it great that we can say that? Arguably the best ever. At this club of all clubs.
Sometimes it doesn’t hit home until you hear it said aloud.
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Great piece. Let’s be clear here: most of these lads – chuck in VVD, Trent as well – are absolutely in the conversation for best of all time. And that needs to be put in the context that in *any* other era they would have dashed off three or four leagues on the trot by now. And in *this* era the only reason they haven’t is because Man City are (likely illegally) financially doped by an entire country. I know it isn’t as cool as a bus top parade, but it’s important to remember it – especially the next time some fans would happily bin off FSG in exchange for some petro dollars. It’s important to remember how good we are and be able to look ourselves in the mirror.