Perhaps the key to getting the best out of Mohamed Salah is to drop him. Omitted then unleashed, the Egyptian warmed up for Manchester City with the fastest treble in Champions League history.
In six minutes and 12 seconds of magical mayhem, Salah served a reminder of his brilliance. Rangers may consider themselves unfortunate to have faced him at his rapacious, rampant best, but a game in which Liverpool trailed ended up as a rout, Salah coming off the bench to seal their belated first away win of the season in spectacular style.
Perhaps it added to the oddity of a team who have now won 9-0 and 7-1 this season while otherwise floundering. They went from struggling to superb in a six-goal second half as Rangers equalled their heaviest European defeat.
Salah’s was a scene-stealing cameo but, as so often in Klopp’s reign, Liverpool really had Roberto Firmino to thank. In a season when others have regressed, he has been rejuvenated. The Brazilian’s brace took Liverpool from trailing to leading and him to eight goals in his last nine games. He set up the third with a delightful backheel for Darwin Nunez to slot in a second goal in as many appearances.
The double-header with Rangers has had restorative properties for Nunez, and a brief outing may do the same for Salah, too. His energy saved for the final throes, he was devastating. He had been held in reserve, along with Thiago Alcantara and Diogo Jota, as Klopp sought to ensure each is fit to face City on Sunday. He made six changes and Liverpool ended up scoring seven goals.
Rangers, who have now conceded 16 times in four Champions League games, were destroyed in a match they had led. A night that had begun with Scott Arfield scoring Rangers’ first Champions League group-stage goal since 2010 ended with them eviscerated and embarrassed.
They were Europa League finalists in May; this continental campaign seems destined to end in early November. Liverpool, meanwhile, only require a point against Ajax in Amsterdam to secure their spot in the knockout stages.
If such ties are billed as the Battle of Britain, Liverpool are really battling themselves. There was the now familiar slow start, a goal for which several were culpable, from Fabio Carvalho losing the ball on his first Champions League start to Jordan Henderson and Fabinho for allowing Arfield the space to drill Rangers ahead. Yet thoughts of crisis were to give way to very different emotions.
Liverpool were only behind for seven minutes before Firmino had the simple task of heading in Kostas Tsimikas’s near-post corner. Set-pieces had brought Joel Matip’s winner against Ajax and both goals against Rangers last week and, during a first half when Liverpool lacked fluency in open play, their dead-ball prowess served a purpose.
They improved after the break and Firmino proved decisive. It is not unknown for Liverpool to get assists from their right back. In the absence of the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez conjured a cross worthy of the regular, perfectly placed for the on-rushing Firmino to slot home. Then he showed his improvisational skills to release Nunez to score the fourth goal of his stop-start Liverpool career.
Perhaps cruelly for Rangers, Klopp then sent Salah on. After Allan McGregor denied him once, the Egyptian then rewrote the record books: first with a goal in trademark fashion from an acute angle after a slaloming dribble, then with a shot from the edge of the box, finally with a typical curler. When Harvey Elliott garnished his own terrific performance with a goal that was initially disallowed, then given by VAR, it was the wrong sort of milestone occasion for Rangers.
Yet it had begun well. It felt fitting that a Rangers fan, in Arfield, got their first goal at this level since 2010. There was more of an onus on Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s team to attack at home and Ryan Kent set the tone even before Arfield struck. But if their defensive tactics in losing 2-0 at Anfield last week had been a damage-limitation exercise, this showed how much harm Liverpool could inflict. For Rangers, it was too much.
