Salah could not have a better moment to rediscover his best form but the title will be decided by togetherness not star powerThere was an interesting story last year on the Al-Monitor website about Mo Salah’s home town of Nagrig. An Al-Monitor journalist had travelled the dust roads from Cairo to discover exactly how Salah’s rise had inspired hope, laughter and joy. And found … no joy, very little laughter and only a grudging amount of hope.Instead the people of Nagrig wanted to talk about how nothing works, how they have no jobs and how all the people suddenly turning up looking for a kind of Scouse Bethlehem were quite annoying. As were the newspaper stories about beaming, Salah-crazed Egyptians...
Liverpool and Tottenham meet on Sunday when the high press will be evident in what is likely to be an engaging ninth meeting of the men in the dugoutEnglish football has, of course, learned before about the dangers of hailing golden ages before they’ve hatched, but with four Premier League clubs in the last eight of the Champions League and a youthful national side playing with rare verve, it can reasonably be acknowledged that there is a profound sense of positivity and promise about the game. At least at the top end. And if you only look at what’s happening on the pitch. And you ignore the looming iceberg of Brexit.A huge part of the reason for that is the...
Ross Barkley’s difficult return, VAR inconsistency in the FA Cup, Nuno Espírito Santo impresses and James Maddison’s classRoss Barkley would have known what kind of reception awaited him at Goodison Park: the type rained down on previous Everton escapees such as Wayne Rooney and Joleon Lescott. Goodison might not be much longer for this world, with the latest suggestion being a new stadium for 2023, but for now it retains old‑fashioned menace to those who have transgressed the Evertonian code. Barkley’s crime among the faithful is to have left Goodison on a cut-price transfer to Chelsea in the January transfer window of last year after running down his contract. As he left the field after being substituted in the 65th...
Liverpool’s title challenge was on the rocks for seven minutes late in the second half at Fulham, before their experienced midfielder spared the goalkeeper’s blushesFor seven minutes, it is no exaggeration to say that Liverpool’s title hopes hung in the balance. The alarm bells had started to ring from the moment that the substitute, James Milner, miscued high into the sky and Virgil van Dijk extended his arms, looked at his goalkeeper, Alisson, and wondered where he was. Alisson had been a virtual bystander up until the 74th minute, such was his team’s control but there he was – or wasn’t – when Van Dijk needed him the most.What happened next appeared to unfold in slow motion. Alisson did reach...
Jürgen Klopp’s side rise to the occasion with their Dutch factotum directing an almost dismissive victory over BayernOn German television they closed out the show with Hello Goodbye by the Beatles, which felt about right. Through mid-afternoon the grey stone squares of Munich’s old town had echoed with choruses of “Allez, Allez, Allez”, Liverpool’s own European anthem of the past two years.It is a sound that may just come to haunt this ageing Bayern era, which reached its own decisive goodbye on a chilly, luminous night at the Allianz Arena. Quietly, and always with a feeling of strength in reserve, Liverpool produced a performance shot through with the steel of the mature Klopp period. Related: Sadio Mané and Virgil van...