As Salah Toils, Jota Stepping Up as Liverpool's Go-to scorer

Mohamed Salah. (AP)
Mohamed Salah. (AP)
TT
20

As Salah Toils, Jota Stepping Up as Liverpool's Go-to scorer

Mohamed Salah. (AP)
Mohamed Salah. (AP)

It was an open-and-shut case for many, including his manager.

Mohamed Salah was, it was declared on an almost weekly basis, the best soccer player in the world for the first half of this season, demonstrating the kind of elite-level scoring form only Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and more recently Robert Lewandowski have been able to produce this century, The Associated Press said.

It wasn’t just the volume of goals — 22 in his first 23 matches — that he was putting away for Liverpool. It was the sheer quality of them that took one's breath away.

None more so than the weaving solo effort he conjured up against Manchester City at Anfield in October, midway through a run of 10 straight games when he scored, that surely will go down as the Premier League’s goal of the season.

“Come on,” Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp asked out loud, “who is better than him?”

Fast forward six months and Salah is, in relative terms, in a rut. Indeed, heading into a seismic return match against City on Sunday that could yet determine the destination of the title, there’s an argument to say he might not even be Klopp’s go-to striker.

There are potentially a whole host of reasons why Salah is going through his worst scoring run this season, with no goals in five games in all competitions and no open-play goals in six weeks.

Is he tired? He’s already played 47 games this season, after all.

Are painful losses for Egypt lingering? First there was the penalty-shootout loss to Liverpool teammate Sadio Mane’s Senegal in the African Cup of Nations final in February, then a loss — also via a shootout — to the same opponent in a World Cup playoff last month.

Does it have anything to do with his current contract standoff with Liverpool? That would be unlikely.

Maybe it’s simply the vagaries of form and happenstance. Because he’s still piling up the chances, just not converting them.

Whatever it is, this is not the Salah of six months ago. He was substituted midway through the second half in each of Liverpool’s last two games after, by his high standards, fairly underwhelming performances.

“Sometimes he could decide in a better way, no doubt about that, pass the ball quicker and all these things,” Klopp said this week. “But it’s a tough period for Sadio (Mane) and Mo, with the Africa Cup and coming back being immediately available for us again with all the games.

“It’s completely normal in a season that you have these little (ups and downs).”

Will Klopp drop Salah against City on Sunday? He’d be a brave man to do that to the Premier League’s top scorer. But it’s not that he doesn’t have options.
And in Diogo Jota, Klopp has a forward who has helped to take on Liverpool’s scoring burden firstly while Salah was away at the African Cup and then amid the Egyptian’s recent struggles.

Jota appears to be Liverpool’s first-choice center forward now, displacing Roberto Firmino by doing all the dirty work like the Brazilian — the tracking back, the pressing, the harrying of defenders — but scoring a lot more goals at the same time.

Jota has scored four goals in his last six games, including the winner against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup quarterfinals and crucial openers against Arsenal and Watford in the league. He is tied for second in the league's scoring chart with 14 goals.

Rested against Benfica in the Champions League in midweek, Jota is highly likely to start against City. It’s which two players are alongside him in the three-pronged forward line that’s the big question.

And this is where Liverpool holds the edge over City, which will start the game at Etihad Stadium one point clear of Klopp’s team with eight games left. Liverpool’s firepower simply is greater, with Klopp able to call upon Salah, Jota, Firmino, Mane and January signing Luis Diaz, who has settled in seamlessly since joining from Porto.
City has a slew of classy attacking midfielders and forwards but none have the cutting edge of the likes of Salah — when he’s in form — or Jota.

City manager Pep Guardiola knows a draw is enough to leave the destiny of the title solely in his team’s hands. If that happens, City will win the league by winning its next seven games.

The onus is on Liverpool to go on the attack, which makes the game all the more enticing for fans.

And Klopp, who boldly played a front four of Mane, Salah, Jota and Firmino at the Etihad two seasons ago, knows he has the offensive players to overwhelm City.
Whether Salah is playing or not.



Verstappen Wins Japanese Grand Prix for His First Victory of F1 Season

Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 6, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 6, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. (Reuters)
TT
20

Verstappen Wins Japanese Grand Prix for His First Victory of F1 Season

Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 6, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Japanese Grand Prix - Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan - April 6, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen celebrates on the podium after winning the Japanese Grand Prix. (Reuters)

Max Verstappen of Red Bull won Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix and broke a "mini-slump" of only two wins in his previous 16 races.

It was the Dutch driver's fourth straight victory on the Suzuka circuit in central Japan and breaks the momentum of the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who won the season’s first two races in Melbourne, Australia, and Shanghai, China.

The four-time defending Formula 1 champion, Verstappen started from pole position after setting a course-record time in qualifying, which he called "insane." Norris placed second and Piastri was third. The track was dry despite rain earlier in the day to produce an incident-free race.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished fourth followed by George Russell of Mercedes and teammate Kimi Antonelli in sixth. Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th in his first drive with Red Bull's top team.

"We keep pushing," Verstappen said. "Unbelievable. A great weekend for us."

Norris leads the driver’s standings after three races with 62 points to 61 for Verstappen.

The weekend turned when Verstappen took the pole on his record last lap Saturday in qualifying.

"If was fun, just pushing very hard at the end," Verstappen said. "The two McLarens were pushing very hard. We didn’t give up improving the car and today it was in its best form."

"Of course, starting on the pole — that's what make it possible to win this race."

Winning in Japan again with Red Bull and engine supplier Honda was important for Verstappen.

"It means a lot to me. It was in the back of my mind those last few laps, I was like ‘Wow, I need to try and stay ahead. It would be a great story, you know, our final like kind of farewell race together with Honda here in Japan.’

"I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved, of course, over all those years together, and I think it’s just like a perfect send off."

Sunday's start was clean with Verstappen taking the lead with the top starters on the grid falling into line behind him. Verstappen slowly stretched his lead and was two seconds ahead of Norris after 10 of 53 laps and kept the same advantage after 15.

Most of the leaders pitted around the 20-lap mark. Verstappen and Norris exited the pits at almost exactly the same time with Norris driving over the grass, unable to get by Verstappen.

"He drove himself into the grass," Verstappen said on the radio.

Stewards said almost immediately the incident did not merit further investigation.

Antonelli led briefly in the middle of the race. At 18 he is the youngest to ever lead in F1 race.

Verstappen was back in the lead after 32 laps, only 1.3 seconds ahead of Norris and 3.4 up on Piastri. On the 36th lap the radio told him: "Push from here."

He did just that, pushing all the way to his 64th career win.