The demands on a team that are looking to win an unprecedented quadruple of trophies are unrelenting and unforgiving. Liverpool have won 24 of their last 28 matches in all competitions, and two of the four they didn’t had no impact upon their progress through the Champions League ties of which they were part. The Reds could not have realistically done any better in 2022.
What makes their form even more remarkable is that Jurgen Klopp has inevitably been unable to pick his first choice XI for every single match. Liverpool have played every weekend and midweek since the first week of January, so rotation has been the order of the day.
For the 2-1 win at Aston Villa, Andy Robertson was given the night off while the substitutes included Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson. Arguably the most notable bench warmer was Mohamed Salah, with the Egyptian making just the 18 th sub appearance of his Reds career when he replaced Luis Diaz for the final 18 minutes.
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For a game that Liverpool simply had to win – though that applies to all of them at the moment – it was a gamble for Klopp to not include the man who is the Premier League’s top goal scorer and leading assist provider. But then resting Salah at Newcastle didn’t prevent a win and neither did it on Tuesday evening.
While the Reds’ front three is nowhere near as set in stone as it once was, with the Liverpool manager having 10 combinations he can select from his five elite forwards, Salah is as good as guaranteed the berth on the right. However, Sadio Mane’s winning goal at Villa Park showed that Klopp has a trio in which he can trust should his number 11 be unavailable.
With 64 minutes gone, Matty Cash took a throw-in on the half way line, and Carney Chukwuemeka laid the ball back to the home side’s goal scorer, Douglas Luiz. He was closed down by Thiago, though, and the ball broke free to Mane.
The Senegalese international played it inside to Diogo Jota and set off towards the penalty box. As he did so, the former Wolves man hit a first-time pass for Diaz to chase. Once he had the ball and had worked a yard of space, the left-sided forward crossed for Mane to score. The goal is unlikely to prove as iconic as his 94 th minute winner at the same end of Villa Park in 2019 , but it was undoubtedly important to keep the Reds’ slender title hopes alive.
And aside from Thiago’s small but important act of ending Villa’s brief sequence of possession, Liverpool’s winning goal was entirely crafted by their front three. As electric as the Reds’ attacking play has been under Klopp, this is actually a surprisingly rare occurrence.
There were just three instances in league and Europe last season of two forwards playing the final two passes before the third of them scored. Another Mane header – this time at Stamford Bridge – was preceded by passes from Roberto Firmino and Salah, before the Reds crafted two such goals in successive games in March last year.
A front three comprising Jota, Mane and Salah linked up to score against RB Leipzig and Wolves, the latter the only goal in a 1-0 win. The same trio then combined for the Egyptian king to score against Arsenal last November, before Diaz opened the scoring against Manchester United at Anfield following passes from Salah and Mane.
As he usually plays, it’s hardly surprising Salah was previously always involved in goals such as these. But for the long-term health of Liverpool’s attack, Diaz and Jota being able to link up with the third forward, whomever it might be, is vital.
Mane and Salah won’t be in the team forever and their current successors have shown the front three of the future might already be in rude health.
