Was Saturday the last we’ve seen of Mohamed Salah (£14.0m) in a Liverpool shirt?
A mostly permanent fixture in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) teams since he joined the Reds in 2017, he’d threatened to have an end-of-season renaissance after three goals in as many starts.
But he hobbled out of Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Crystal Palace clutching his hamstring, and now we face a wait to see if he features again in 2025/26.
SALAH INJURY LATEST
Salah exited the field just before the hour mark, depriving his new and existing owners – he was bought by 750,000+ managers ahead of Gameweek 34, albeit with many drafting him in on the Free Hit – of even a clean sheet point.
As you’d expect, Arne Slot said it was too early to know the full extent of the issue.
“We don’t know. So, that’s the best answer I can give, because if I say it might be a chance [that his season is over], then probably all the headlines are, ‘There might be a chance…’
“We simply don’t know but what we do know is the season is in, four weeks, over, so there are not a lot of games being played. We have to wait and see how his injury is and if he is able to return to play.
“What I do know about Mo is that all of these years, he has taken such good care of his body that he will have the minimum time required to recover from an injury.
“Let’s hope for the best, that he is available in the last part [of the season].” – Arne Slot on Mohamed Salah
ISAK’S FIRST LEAGUE GOAL AT ANFIELD… FOR LIVERPOOL
Up until Saturday, Alexander Isak (£10.3m) had scored more league goals at Anfield for Newcastle United than Liverpool. In fact, outside of cups, he’d yet to find the net once on Merseyside this season.
That drought ended against Palace, when he superbly controlled Alexis Mac Allister‘s (£6.2m) wayward shot and bobbled an effort past Dean Henderson (£5.1m).
“It’s really nice that he scored one because when we signed him we knew he could score goals and that’s what he showed today. Many times this season we’ve had better chances than we had today [and not scored], that’s why it’s also important to have players that can score also goals like this, because that can give you a big lift in a game.” – Arne Slot on Alexander Isak
The goal aside, it again wasn’t particularly eye-catching stuff from Isak. That strike was his only shot of the game, and he had struggled to get involved before breaking the deadlock.
But then, he’s earned some slack after so long out. Each week is about getting him fitter; this was his longest run-out, at 78 minutes, since his return from injury. And he was that little bit better than he was at Everton last weekend.
We’ll probably only see the best of him in 2026/27.
And Isak wasn’t alone in delivering a so-so display. Cody Gakpo (£7.3m) was peripheral, while Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.1m) was unusually muted. The Hungarian had to shoulder more of the defensive responsibility, in fairness, with Mac Allister recalled for the benched Ryan Gravenberch (£5.5m). Szoboszlai registered his second-fewest number of final-third touches (13) in a game this season.
Even Florian Wirtz (£8.3m) was tidy rather than spectacular before finishing excellently to wrap the game up at 3-1.
FRIMPONG OVERLOOKED AGAIN… BUT COULD HE NOW BE ‘OOP’?
One other line of note from Liverpool was a second successive start for Curtis Jones (£5.4m) at right-back. And, as in the Merseyside derby, he did pretty well.
It’s a bit of an indictment of Jeremie Frimpong (£5.7m), that Slot favours another midfielder (remember Szoboszlai has previously moonlighted as a full-back) over the Dutchman in defence.
There’s a chance we could see Frimpong further forward in the run-in, however, should Salah be ruled out.
It was indeed the Netherlands international who replaced his injured teammate on the hour, and there are far fewer reservations about Frimpong’s attacking attributes than his defensive skillset.
Jones, by the way, was one of seven players in this fixture to register DefCon points:
PALACE STILL GIVING IT EVERYTHING
Liverpool may have won but Palace earn plenty of plaudits for this display.
In fact, despite the distraction of Europe, they’ve looked pretty committed to the task in the last three Gameweeks.
Here, at Anfield, the Eagles outshot their hosts 14-9 and beat them on xG by 2.26-1.15.
The game in a nutshell:
- Liverpool: 3 big chances, 3 converted
- Palace: 5 big chances, 0 converted
Chris Richards (£4.4m) nodded over early on despite beating Freddie Woodman (£3.9m) to the ball, while Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.6m) drew a great save out of the budget ‘keeper with another header from eight yards out. That stop was crucial, as Andrew Robertson (£5.7m) galloped up the other end, Tony Adams-style, to make it 2-0.
The excellent Woodman also repelled Mateta from a narrow angle, while Maxence Lacroix (£5.1m) nodded against the post and Ismaila Sarr (£6.3m) should have done better with two breakaway chances, although the second of those did lead to Palace’s goal.
Jorgen Strand Larsen (£5.9m), on for Mateta, also hit the woodwork, although the VAR might have chalked that off for offside had it gone it.
So, while Palace’s consolation was controversial in nature – Daniel Munoz (£5.8m) chipping over an injured Woodman – even Slot admitted that they warranted a goal.
“I think Palace deserved to come back into the game because they were playing a good game, they were close to scoring goals, the margins were really small.” – Arne Slot
“I think it was our best performance here at Anfield, even when we lost the game. But yeah, created so many chances.
“Today, I think the difference was the efficiency, and Liverpool took their half-chances and we missed our big chances. So that is maybe the summary.” – Oliver Glasner
Palace are still giving it everything domestically, then, but we can probably expect to the rotation to return in Gameweek 35.
MITCHELL INJURY
Tyrick Mitchell (£5.0m) failed to reappear after half-time, but it sounds like the wing-back may be fit for Thursday’s clash with Shakhtar Donetsk.
“Tyrick felt his Achilles. To be honest, it is not just since today, it is an ongoing issue he has. Our medical department is treating it very well, and today then he said he can’t continue.
“I think [it can be managed in time for Thursday].” – Oliver Glasner on Tyrick Mitchell
