A New Era Begins at Anfield
Even as one era comes to a close, another can begin. If it is the end of the road for Mohamed Salah, it may well be the start of something remarkable for Rio Ngumoha. During Liverpool’s victory over Fulham, the scorers were 33 and 17 years old respectively—almost double the age of each other. The older player is on the verge of leaving, while the younger one seems poised to take his place in the future.
“Not just the long-term future, but also the near future,” said manager Jürgen Slot. As Salah’s farewell approaches, the introduction of Ngumoha signals that there is still life in Liverpool’s forward line after the legend. On Salah’s first appearance at Anfield since announcing his departure, he was greeted with cheers from the start. Andy Robertson, another key figure from Klopp’s era who is also heading out, was also celebrated. Salah earned an additional rendition of his song after scoring his 256th goal for Liverpool. Ngumoha’s was just his second. There are 254 goals between them.
This marks the largest age gap ever between Liverpool goalscorers in a league game. The previous record was between Steven Gerrard and Gary McAllister. The Merseysider was still playing when the Scot turned 50, and Ngumoha should be when Salah enters his sixth decade. He became Liverpool’s youngest league goalscorer at Anfield, at 17 years and 225 days. Raheem Sterling lost a record as Ngumoha gained one.
Men of different generations struck with certain similarities. Their finishes were curled into the far corner. The second goal was a trademark Salah strike; perhaps in time, the first will become a trademark Ngumoha goal. As it was, Slot remarked: “It was like a Mo Salah goal.” A level of audacity when dribbling is certainly becoming characteristic of Ngumoha. “He has a quality you don’t see very often in football, dominating the one-on-one,” said Slot. It was partly the fearlessness of youth, partly the talent of a prodigy. For Liverpool, who were troubled by the trickery of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in Paris on Wednesday, it is a case for responding in kind by starting with Ngumoha in Tuesday’s second leg. “I think he is ready,” said Slot. “The question, of course, is can he do this two days later?”
Barring a spectacular turnaround against Paris Saint-Germain, Salah only has four more games at Anfield. Maybe that gave the Kop an added reason to savour this, and he was recalled.
Liverpool were wingless, if not necessarily wondrous, in the Parc des Princes. Slot ditched the back five he used against PSG and brought back his wingers: three in total, with Cody Gakpo as the centre-forward. It became an advertisement for width in attack, though Slot would always prefer to have wingers anyway.
After a back five in France, Liverpool had a front four on Merseyside. They began applying pressure, if fashioning few clear-cut chances. Then Ngumoha forged a breakthrough. He turned Timothy Castagne one way and then the other. A jinking run was followed by a classy finish. “It’s a special goal,” said Ngumoha. Remarkably, he has scored a league goal for Liverpool at Anfield before Alexander Isak. Slot had seen it coming. “In training sessions during the last month we saw he got more and more power to hit the ball as he did today,” he added.
A second goal followed four minutes later from a move featuring each of the second-string front three, with Ngumoha providing the initial injection, Gakpo moving the ball on to Salah and him supplying the first-time finish, curled across the goalkeeper in trademark fashion. Salah patted the badge on his chest.
“The game was decided in five minutes and our approach was not aggressive enough on and off the ball,” rued Fulham manager Marco Silva. His side had one notable chance before the break when Giorgi Mamardashvili, carrying where he left off in Paris, saved well from Oscar Bobb. Silva’s dissatisfaction was then apparent in a half-time double change. His replacements threatened to make a difference. Sasa Lukic found the net a minute after coming on, but he was offside. Emile Smith Rowe volleyed just wide from 12 yards. “We have a big chance with Emile and the game could be completely different,” added Silva. It was Fulham’s first game for 22 days; he felt they ought to have taken advantage of the fact Liverpool played only three days earlier. That was a reason Slot made five changes, but two of those he brought in scored.
Liverpool’s 1500th league win at Anfield was a restorative result, after their previous three league games had yielded a solitary point. It was a first Premier League win since February. The damage came in the loss of Curtis Jones with a groin problem that renders him a doubt for Tuesday.
“This whole season, so many things have repeated themselves. Every time when something positive happens, someone, somewhere makes sure that it cannot only be a positive, so there must be an injury involved after a good win,” rued Slot.
Otherwise, Ngumoha’s excellence meant the complaints from the crowd were confined to the ticket price rises that have been announced. The fans told the owners in no uncertain terms where they could stick them. Those more expensive tickets will not bring the chance to watch Salah; but Ngumoha should offer them something worth seeing, even for the greater cost.
