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Seven touches. Four players. 13 seconds from start to finish.
Mohamed Salah’s second goal against West Ham United on Sunday was not just a pivotal moment in extending Liverpool’s lead in a game of enormous significance – it already has its own place in history as one of the greatest goals ever scored in the era. by Jürgen Klopp.
Reaching a point in the contest where they had just successfully resisted a barrage of crosses and plays from the home team, it was an impressive and classic display of a signature move – turning an opposition corner into a devastating and sweeping counterattack. . culminating in a goal from the other end.
In recent weeks and even during the first half comments, there has been a lot of talk about how this is no longer the same Liverpool team. They don’t attack with the same fierce speed and precision as before. They are slower and more predictable, easier to contain. Yesterday they were there to take them, apparently.
And while it is true that before Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-1 dismantling, Liverpool were going through a depressing streak of attacking in the Premier League for a month or so, the impressive sequence of play that led to Salah’s second against West Ham was an emphatic demonstration that this core element of his DNA remains firmly intact, even if it had been locked away for a short time until the last few days.
It was, in every way, a work of art: the Klopp’s perfect distillation of Liverpool at its finest, so aesthetically pleasing you could watch it looping for hours, maybe even days and days without getting bored.
Andy Robertson’s near-post header from Jarrod Bowen’s corner kick isn’t just a punt; the Scotsman purposely looks at him diagonally to his right side, as if he already had an image in his head of what will happen next.
Side-to-side, Trent Alexander-Arnold is instantly turned on and needs a few taps to get him completely under control before lifting his head and weighing his options. At this point, Liverpool already have nothing less than five players advance, feeling the opportunity that awaits them.
Alexander-Arnold then does what Alexander-Arnold does, effortlessly tossing a 70-yard pass to the opposite flank with just the right amount of cutting spin to slow down in time for Xherdan Shaqiri to pick it up in acres of empty space without having to interrupt the step.
With Robertson inside him, Salah diving down the middle, and Jordan Henderson bombarding forward like a steam train to the right, at no point does Shaqiri consider slowing things down. He knows exactly what he wants to do: get the ball to Salah as quickly as possible.
However, that is not an easy task. Not only do you have a relatively small patch of grass to aim for, you need to evade the two retreating West Ham defenders. Y make sure you don’t hit it too hard so Łukasz Fabiański can come out and pick it up, all while sprinting. Timing and precision have to be impeccable, or else everything falls apart.
In keeping with the sumptuous Alexander-Arnold vision and execution piece that preceded it, Shaqiri, without even taking a touch to control it, produces a glorious looping pass to meet the rushing Salah.
Still, the Egyptian has a lot to do with the ball landing quickly on his shoulder from that height. What follows is Out of this world, Luis Suarez vs Newcastle levels of magnificence when Salah kills him with an outrageous and impudent touch on his ‘weaker’ right foot, the kind of moment that really makes you realize that you’re looking at one of the best players of his generation ( and in Liverpool) at the height of his powers.
At this point, time stops.
There is nothing any West Ham player can do to avoid the inevitable. Salah doesn’t need an extra touch to put himself on or even any back-lift to take the shot, as he cleverly runs it past Fabianski like it’s the easiest thing in the world, walking away before he even passes the line. with absolute certainty that your work here is done.
There is no wild celebration of the man himself, only that cold cold death gaze from Mo Salah as if to say “That’s what I do” before being engulfed in a big, jubilant bear hug from the captain.
Right there, at that moment, it was very clear: Liverpool have recovered their mojo.
It is a goal that will be savored for years to come.
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