Lawrenson raises interesting Salah concern for Liverpool

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Mohamed Salah has been a revelation for Liverpool this season.

After one of their most successful seasons in years, Liverpool will head into their UEFA Champions League semi-final first-leg tie tonight knowing that they’ve got a great chance of progressing to the final of Europe’s greatest club competition for the first time since 2007.

Alas, one of the main variables behind the success or failure of their mission lies at the feet of Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian has been absolutely remarkable so far this season, but in his column in the Daily Mirror, Liverpool legend Mark Lawrenson believes that there’s one thing to consider when analysing how he may fare at Anfield.

“My feeling is that if both teams play to their max then Liverpool will win,” Lawrenson told the Daily Mirror.

“Simple as that. Will Mo Salah give it extra against his old club? The only danger is you can end up trying too hard.”

While what he’s saying makes sense in theory, it feels like we’ve seen enough of Salah across the entirety of this season to make a full judgement. The 25-year-old has shown remarkable resilience and when put into any kind of pressure situation, handling it with the kind of skill and maturity that you only get from a true world-class talent.

In the league, he’s scored against Manchester City, Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea, and in the last round of the Champions League alone he scored twice across two legs against City to help the Reds reach the stage they’re at now.

While it may be seen as a completely different scenario for him to come up against his old team, it feels as if Salah has proven himself to possess more composure than that. On the ball he looks calmer than most, his positioning is exemplary, and his finishing has been at the highest level against all different kinds of opposition.

At this stage in the season there’s no such thing as trying too hard, especially when the real threat would be that several Roma players know how Salah plays inside out. How he deals with their knowledge and adapts to the situation will be the real test.