Let’s face it: in football, it’s often the case that major cup finals do not make for the best games of the season. For every 2022 World Cup final between France and Argentina, there will be a dozen examples of tight and tense contests; far from the ideal conditions to produce season-defining performances.
For Mohamed Salah, a scorer of 32 goals in what looks to be a record-breaking campaign for Liverpool, that was again the case in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final defeat to Newcastle United. For a forward who is on his way to recording one of the greatest individual seasons of all time in the Premier League came the anomaly of Wembley: a match where the 32-year-old did not have a shot or create a chance in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat.
