After missing his second straight penalty kick during Sunday's 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Anfield, Mohamed Salah, the star forward for Liverpool, has confessed manager Jurgen Klopp would chat with him about whether the player stays on the penalty kill.
Diogo Jota collapsed under pressure following a sloppy Rob Holding challenge, leaving Liverpool down 2-1 early in the second half after Salah himself had gotten one back to cut into Arsenal's lead just before halftime.
Salah teased power from the ensuing penalty but opened up his body and attempted to side foot the ball with his left foot into the bottom corner. Yet it just missed the mark.
Thankfully, Roberto Firmino did score an equalizer late on for the legendary Egyptian player. Yet, regaining parity so quickly might have provided Liverpool with a better starting point.
Klopp acknowledged that he initially believed it was a goal and remarked, "I only saw the penalty after the game."
"I believed a few individuals in the crowd responded. When you are blind to the punishment, you respond to what others are seeing. Evidently, a few individuals believed the ball was in, but it missed the goal. Because of this, I briefly raised my hand before realizing that nobody was actually celebrating and the ball was still out.
The Liverpool manager responded when asked if Salah will still be assigned to take penalties, "That's something we will talk about, but not here."
Since crushing Manchester United 7-0 last month, Liverpool has now lost four consecutive Premier League games and five straight across all competitions. They only collected two of the final twelve points available, leaving them 12 points behind fourth-place United. They now appear increasingly likely to finish outside the top four this season and miss out on Champions League competition for the first time since 2016.
That would be a devastating setback for the Reds, particularly at a time when the team needs considerable reconstruction and reinvestment and there are no other European competitions that come close to being as financially rewarding as the Champions League.
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