As Liverpool opened the scoring almost immediately after kick-off during Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg against Atalanta, there was a sense of inevitability about what was to come.
Just ask Barcelona. That Trent Alexander-Arnold cross and that Divock Origi finish still keeping Blaugrana supporters up at night. When Liverpool get going, Jurgen Klopp’s ‘mentality monsters’ usually take some stopping, even when faced with a deficit that would have most other clubs accepting defeat with only half of the tie gone.
But this, however, is not the Liverpool of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and co. This is the Liverpool of Dominik Szoboszlai and Darwin Nunez. And as Atalanta weathered an early storm following Mo Salah‘s seventh minute penalty, the comments Klopp made when announcing his departure in the winter also felt applicable to his team.
A manager – and a side – running out of steam, and lacking the ferocious tenacity of yesteryear.
Liverpool win but exit Europa League at Atalanta
“I don’t think they have played well since the Man Utd game (that 4-3 FA Cup defeat),” former Anfield striker Peter Crouch tells TNT Sports, Liverpool never really threatening to overcome that 3-0 first-leg deficit in the end.
“I think that kind of shell-shocked them.”
Of course, things could have been different had Salah put away the sort of chance he used to finish with his eyes closed on the stroke of half-time. The Egyptian had the goal at his mercy with Juan Musso horribly out of position, yet aimed his attempted lob well wide of the target.
With his 32nd birthday approaching and an alarming dip in form showing no sign of ending – Salah was subbed off on the 66th minute when his team still needed two goals – it seems even he is powerless to prevent the march of Father Time.
“For Salah, on his left foot, it’s an easy finish,” Crouch adds. “If he’s scoring goals for fun like he usually is, I think that goes in. It’s not that difficult but it just comes off his shin. That’s the one that will be going through his mind tonight.
“That was in the first half and it could have been so different.”
In the end, Atalanta felt like the most likely goalscorers in the second ’45, Gian Piero Gasperini’s side easing into a semi-final clash with Marseille. That FA Cup defeat at Old Trafford, that European exit and a stunning 1-0 home loss against Crystal Palace last time out means there is a very real chance that Klopp’s victory parade ends with only a Carabao Cup winners’ medal to show for it.
Jurgen Klopp backs under-fire Mo Salah
“I loved the way we started the game,” Klopp, who HITC understands could be replaced by Sporting Lisbon coach Ruben Amorim, tells the Liverpool website.
“We didn’t lose the tie tonight. We lost it at home. That is why we have to – and it’s very easy to – congratulate Atalanta because they deserved to go through. When you win a tie against us 3-1, especially in this way, you deserve to go through, absolutely.
“But I loved our game anyway, especially the start. I loved the commitment and the desire, the power we developed in this game. But it was clear we better score from time to time to interrupt these kind of things otherwise it could be tricky to keep that over 90 minutes.”
Klopp, meanwhile, insists he is not worried about Salah’s increasingly ineffective displays, with rumours of a move to Saudi Arabia rearing their head once again.
“I am not particularly concerned. That’s what happens to strikers, that’s how it is,” the German adds. “We have to go through this, he has to go through that. He is one of the most experienced players we have in the squad. We will go through that but that’s pretty much all.
“It’s not that Mo didn’t miss chances before in his life. That’s a part of the game. The penalty was super-convincing, a super penalty, then the next chance, that was obviously unlucky. But it is not the first time he missed a chance like that.
“I will not make a big story of it. What you make of it I obviously have no influence on obviously but, no, I am not particularly concerned.”