A look at their situation with possible over-reliance on their talisman.
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00:00Looking at Salah, he's no doubt had an unbelievable individual season, but has there been a bit of moments where you look at the Liverpool side and the Liverpool attack, as you say, very lacklustre in that final, and you think maybe a bit of over-reliance on Salah to produce these moments of magic and win games, turn them from losses or draws to wins?
00:23I know he can do that and has done so many times this season, but do you feel there is a bit of over-reliance on Mohamed Salah?
00:30I think when you look at the stats, perhaps other players haven't stepped up to the plate. It's not like everyone, you know, let's just get it to Mohamed Salah and he'll score the goals. That's certainly not the way that Liverpool play.
00:43In terms of the output, there haven't been enough contributions from the rest of them. I mean, one blower's Cozy Gasco hasn't been fixed, he's been troubled by an ankle injury. Maybe he's come back a little bit too because he was out again and didn't really do too much against Newcastle.
00:59Diogo Jota, fitness issues, has now got form issues as well. Luis Diaz, I think he's scored one goal since the turn of the year, that was against Wolves. He's started off the season really, really strongly, but he hasn't been quite the same.
01:21If you look at him and think, is he 28 now? Is he going to progress any further? Darwin Nunes, we've spoken enough about Darwin Nunes, haven't we? Throughout the season, I think he does look like his days are probably going to be numbers. Fair play to Federico Chiesa coming off the bench and putting the ball away in a really composed manner.
01:42There's an argument now that, given Liverpool's struggles at the top end of the pitch, why not give Chiesa a chance as the number nine? Because it's a position he's played in the past in Italy. But coming back to Mo Salah, he didn't have his best game. He was probably the worst of front three, I think, against Newcastle.
02:04I know we can't do every game, but on a big stage, that's when you want your talisman to step up. You want him to go and do something. We've seen Birgit van Dijk at the back, he was magnificent at the back. He was probably one of the only starting players who came off with any credits at the performance.
02:22There wasn't enough from Salah at times as well. I know he was isolated on the right. He didn't have Alexander-Arnold or Conor Bradley coming in, overlapping, taking another defender away. He didn't have Alexander-Arnold playing him in early. But there were just times where you just wanted a bit more from him. He's a winger at the end of the day. He's not a striker. He's not a goalscorer. He classed himself as a winger.
02:49It's all well and good to say he didn't get the service, but go and make something happen. Drop inside. Maybe Arnold Slott should have got him in the game a little bit more because he's clearly a player that Newcastle fears. But it's definitely something after the international break that Arnold Slott has to address. How can he get more out of the other attacking players because he can't just rely on Salah to come up the goods.
03:16Just on Salah, in terms of his ban on door chances, he had huge shouts for it. He's still on track to definitely be nominated and be voted very highly with his individual return this season, especially at his age as well. Obviously, crashing out of the other tournaments as well, especially Europe, just seemed to have a big pull in terms of the ban on door race.
03:37Do you feel his chances are maybe a bit slimmer now if Vinicius Junior goes on or Mbappe goes on and wins the Champions League with Real Madrid?
03:49It might depend on that, yeah. I mean, there won't be too many Liverpool fans who are supporting Arsenal in the Champions League, but Mo Salah might be one of them when that time comes around. Look, if you look at it in terms of numbers alone, Mo Salah is ahead of Mbappe and Vinicius Junior, but you know how much the European Cup carries weight. I think Salah scored three goals in the Champions League this season, which in terms of his numbers, that's not a lot.
04:17Most of them have come in the Premier League. Look, it's the most difficult league in the world, but I think it's fairly well known that it goes on trophies as well, the trophies that you win. And Real Madrid's obviously in a tussle to win La Liga, Champions League. They're always a force, aren't they? And they'll fancy themselves against Arsenal.
04:36And as you say, Mbappe and Vinicius Junior are the ones who Mo Salah's got to go and hunt down. The only thing he can do now is make sure he adds to his goals tally and his assist tally in the Premier League and remain at nine games. You would fancy him to do that. Some games that he can go and really be a force for Liverpool.
04:58He has had a little bit of a blip. His records in finals, that's coming up, isn't it? Only scored once in finals throughout his career, but he's had a tremendous season. I think it's a little bit of a knee-jerk reaction, in all honesty. If Liverpool had won the Carabao Cup, would that have really affected Mo Salah's chances of winning the Ballon d'Or?
05:27No, the Champions League perhaps. But look, he'll know there's a little bit of noise about it now. And he really wants to get his hands on that prize, so he'll know that he has to go again. And he'll have to work potentially even harder. I don't know if that's possible, but he might have to if he's to support the Real Madrid giants.