There should be a clinical assessment of whether it is worth paying £400,000 a week to keep the talismanic EgyptianThe immediate thought is that it cannot happen. Mohamed Salah, the embodiment of this glorious period of Liverpool’s history, cannot be allowed to leave: the club have to give him whatever he wants. Just make sure he stays, keeps rattling along at 20-odd goals a season, many of which will be stunning, keeps delighting both fans and neutrals with his verve and imagination.But the immediate thought may not be entirely helpful: no player is ever irreplaceable. Of course, there is a sentimental appeal to the idea that a player and a club have a special relationship, particularly when that player has...
The Liverpool manager has reached his first FA Cup semi-final but they were pushed all the way by old foes Nottingham ForestRewind more than four decades and, long before Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp became English football’s defining managerial duel, it was Brian Clough against Bob Paisley. If the German, with his Clough-esque charisma, eminent quotability and seeming ability to shape events by force of personality, seems to borrow more from the architect of Nottingham Forest’s success than his most decorated predecessor at Anfield, he has something in common with both.He has coached teams to glory in the European Cup but never the FA Cup. For a couple more months, anyway. Guardiola still blocks his path. Thomas Tuchel, another Champions...
The institution of the Cup is widely devalued but Nottingham Forest v Liverpool brings up memories of a more innocent ageEvery year the question is asked: what is the point of the FA Cup, why should we care? This is not the Premier League, with its slick production values, glamorous stars at every turn and sense of dramatic urgency. There’s no great sense that it matters: you lose, you’re out and it has no bearing on the race for fourth. You win the thing and your manager still gets sacked a few days or weeks or months later – between 2012 and 2018, Arsène Wenger was the only FA Cup-winning manager still to be in his job a year later.Yet...
Liverpool withstood everything Arsenal could throw at them and took advantage of fine margins to score their goalsThe gap through which Thiago Alcântara threaded his pass to Diogo Jota: a yard, at a generous estimate. The space that Jota found at Aaron Ramsdale’s near post to jam the ball in: maybe a couple of feet. The space in which Roberto Firmino had somehow to divert Andy Robertson’s cross past a goalkeeper literally standing next to him: a matter of inches. These are the margins that are taking Liverpool towards the top of the Premier League, and right now they are managing to find them better than anyone else.The match in summary: Arsenal were the better side for 50 minutes and...
Brazilian is unsuitable for celebrity clubs and philosophy sides, but Steven Gerrard could build a team around himPhilippe Coutinho has played 598 minutes for Aston Villa, in which time he has scored four goals and set up three more. Victory at Leeds on Thursday meant Villa have won three league games in a row for the first time since the beginning of last season. There is a real sense of momentum there now and it is not just about results. Coutinho, quite aside from his direct contribution, is a player of stature, the sort of figure whose very presence can persuade fans, even other players, that a club is going places. Which inevitably prompts the question: what is he doing...