Stuart Pearce questions Mohamed Salah’s ‘self-belief’ during Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat at Real Madrid in the Champions League. He felt the winger tried hard but lacked a ‘cutting edge’.
The Reds crashed out of Europe in the Round of 16 after their largest defeat on aggregate ever in the UEFA competition. Karim Benzema (78’) scored the only goal of the second leg on Wednesday night. He handed Los Blancos a 6-2 result having earlier won 5-2 at Anfield.
Liverpool had opened a 2-0 lead during the first leg after Salah assisted Darwin Nunez (4’) before scoring himself (14’). But Real Madrid responded in devastating fashion and cruised to a second-leg victory. Alisson Becker also prevented them from running up the scoreline.
Alisson produced a number of important saves to give Liverpool the slimmest of hopes of a comeback at Real Madrid. But Nunez spurned an early chance to break the deadlock at the Santiago Bernabeu. Rarely did the Reds look to go all-out to try and cause an upset, either.
Liverpool named an aggressive XI but Salah and co rarely troubled Real Madrid
Jurgen Klopp went aggressive with his line-up at Real Madrid but Liverpool did not match it with their approach. Salah, Nunez, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo all started in Spain. Yet they recorded five shots on target from nine attempts with Nunez taking three, per WhoScored.
Salah did not account for any of Liverpool’s nine shots but registered a team-high two key passes at Real Madrid. He created the Reds’ first two shots of the night with chances after seven and 18 minutes for Nunez and Jota. But the Reds failed to take advantage of either.
Antonio Rudiger slipped 30 yards from his goal under pressure from Salah, who played the ball into Nunez to shoot. Trent Alexander-Arnold then fed Salah down the wing before he cut a pass back to Jota. Yet the forward would shank his effort horrendously from 10 yards.
What has Pearce said about Salah after a rare off-night in the Champions League?
Salah enjoyed another chance to release Nunez in the 54th minute but majorly underhit a pass. While Federico Valverde and, above all, Nacho Fernandez kept a lid on his advances.
Real Madrid were just the second side to stop Salah from scoring in the Champions League during Liverpool’s eight matches this term. He had also scored at least once in his previous six fixtures. But Pearce felt the 30-year-old may have lacked the confidence to score again.
“I love Salah to bits, he’s working so hard,” Pearce said on talkSPORT. “But that little bit of cutting edge. I don’t know whether it’s self-belief but he’s just not doing enough.”
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