Yahoo Sports Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah void – key players who will need to step up
Many a true word is spoken in jest, so when Jürgen Klopp told Mohamed Salah he would be fibbing if he wished him all the best at the Africa Cup of Nations it was not entirely tongue in cheek.
“I said if I wish you good luck it would be a lie,” said Klopp, referring to Salah and Wataru Endo, who will represent Japan in the Asia Cup.
“From a personal point of view, I would be happy if they go out in the group stage but that’s probably not possible. They can go on and win it. So it was ‘good luck and come back healthy’. We have to deal with it and we will deal with it. I am pretty positive that we will find a way.”
Some players leave a void in their absence. Salah leaves a Grand Canyon-sized gap. The Egyptian has scored 18 goals and is responsible for nine assists in his 27 appearances across all competitions this season, his overall contribution as productive as ever, making the timing of the Africa Cup of Nations about as welcome as a Geordie interior decorator at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light.
Aside from his stellar contribution, Salah’s availability makes him so reliable. Since returning from the 2021 edition of Afcon – played in 2022 following the Covid pandemic – he has missed just one of Liverpool’s 73 Premier League games.
Fortunately, Klopp does have options as a month of Salah-less Liverpool kicks off at Arsenal in the FA Cup third round.
Diogo Jota and Harvey Elliott are the most likely to assume Salah’s position as Liverpool’s right-sided attacker, although teenager Kaide Gordon impressed in the Europa League after a long injury lay-off and will be under consideration in the cup. Over the next month there is also the option of switching Luis Díaz from the left. That would enable Darwin Núñez to play off the wing if Klopp uses Cody Gakpo as a central striker.
Most of the external focus will be on Núñez, the Uruguay international still searching for that clinical edge which would transform him from an immensely promising striker to a world-class one. He has eight goals and eight assists in 28 games this season, which is a reasonable number clouded by the number of easy chances he has missed, especially in the past month.
Díaz began the season hot, but Monday’s performance against Newcastle United was his best since suffering a family trauma when his father, Luis Snr, was kidnapped. He has five goals and two assists in 24 appearances – numbers which Klopp will anticipate significantly improving on the basis of what the Colombian showed on New Year’s Day.
And then there is still somewhat underrated Jota, who has nine goals in 19 games and another two assists. He has returned from injury looking sharper than any of Liverpool’s attackers, his fitness fundamental to ensuring Salah’s absence is more frustrating than it is destabilising to the club’s league and cup ambitions.
Klopp will be buoyed by the fact that coping without Salah is not new territory. Indeed, the situation seemed more perilous two years ago when both Salah and Sadio Mané inspired their respective countries to the Afcon final. Liverpool played six games in their absence, failing to win just once, coincidentally including two meetings with Arsenal.
Liverpool will be significantly weakened in this weekend’s fixture, though. As well as Salah and Endo, Liverpool will be without midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai for the next two games as he recovers from a hamstring strain suffered against Newcastle.
Klopp is optimistic it is not too bad.
“How long? We have to see,” he said. “Dom is very positive. He doesn’t have a lot of pain but we have to wait a little bit. There is no chance for Sunday or Wednesday [against Fulham in the League Cup] and then we will see after that.”
But after breaking xG records in the Premier League, naturally most of the focus will be on Liverpool’s front three.
“We have different offensive options who can all play that wing in a different way,” said Klopp. “Nobody else can play like Mo. It is not possible. So we just have to use the boys with their skills.
“Do we want to play without Mo? No. In the past we didn’t have to do it often but we always found a way. But we play Arsenal and you can lose to Arsenal with Mo Salah so it’s possible to lose to them without him.”
