Salah and Mane blank as Firmino continues fine form as a central striker

Having recapped the events between Spurs and Manchester City in our first Scout Notes article of the day, we now turn our attention to Tuesday night’s Champions League tie at Anfield.

Liverpool are one of 12 clubs without two fixtures in Gameweek 35 but their upcoming matches against Cardiff City and particularly Huddersfield Town are appealing nonetheless, so there will be plenty of keen interest in the Reds’ assets despite their lack of a Double Gameweek.

Liverpool 2-0 Porto

• Goals: Naby Keita (£7.1m), Roberto Firmino (£9.3m)
• Assists: Roberto Firmino, Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.5m)

Having found the back of the net for the first time since Gameweek 26 last Friday, Fantasy managers would have been keen to see how Mohamed Salah (£13.2m) could follow up his goal at Southampton in Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final first leg tie against Porto at Anfield.

As so often happens, Salah dominated the shot count.

The Egyptian had seven of Liverpool’s 15 attempts on goal, with Roberto Firmino (£9.3m) and Sadio Mane (£10.1m) registering just four shots between them by comparison.

Salah was again lining up on the right of a three-man attack and repeatedly had the beating of wing-back Alex Telles.

Not for the first time this season, the terror he induced in the opposition defence when dribbling at speed wasn’t really matched by an end product, with Salah either running out of room or being crowded out on several occasions – left-sided centre-half Eder Militao deserving particular credit for how he handled the Egpyt international.

Just one of Salah’s seven shots forced a save, while his one excellent opportunity of the match saw him unconvincingly roll a finish wide of Iker Casillas’ post when pouncing on a weak back-pass.

Salah was name-checked in his manager’s post-match presser, with Jurgen Klopp saying:

We deserved the win, 100 per cent, we scored two wonderful goals and we were – in a lot of situations – really dangerous, on the right side especially with Mo, Hendo and Trent, the crosses and the passes. Overall, a really good performance. 

Mane had a quiet evening by comparison and perhaps missed the presence of the suspended Andrew Robertson (£6.8m), with deputy full-back James Milner (£5.6m) not quite offering that same threat down the left flank.

The Senegalese winger had just one shot in his 73-minute showing (both he and Firmino had their legs preserved towards the end of this game) but has made a habit out of scoring from fewer opportunities than Salah this calendar year and was only denied a goal by a marginal offside call in the second half.

Firmino continues to impress, meanwhile.

Our article yesterday highlighted Salah’s regression in FPL returns since moving back to the right flank and it is perhaps no surprise that Firmino’s own Fantasy appeal has increased as a result of his switch to the centre-forward role.

The Brazilian striker has delivered a goal and/or assist in five of his six league starts from Gameweek 26 onwards, the exception being the 0-0 draw with Manchester United in which he was substituted after only 30 minutes.

Firmino is still not an orthodox centre-forward per se, of course, and was again noticeably dropping deep against Porto, with Salah and Mane often playing in advance of him.

The Brazil international was still prominent enough in the opposition box, though, and his nimble footwork hinted at the confidence that is now flowing through him after a slightly underwhelming first six months of the season (from an FPL perspective, at least).

Firmino teed up the impressive Naby Keita (£7.1m) for Liverpool’s heavily deflected opening goal before getting on the end of a low Trent Alexander-Arnold (£5.5m) cross to double the hosts’ lead.

Keita delivered what was perhaps his best performance in a Liverpool shirt, registering two shots and as many key passes, but with competition for places so fierce in the Liverpool midfield there won’t be many Fantasy managers who will be willing to take a punt on a rotation risk who has only two attacking returns all season (his first goal coming last Friday) and just one match in Gameweek 35.

Klopp said after the game:

I think Naby was a couple of times a little bit unlucky with the first one or two situations and then he had to find his way back in the game.

Today, from the start, he was immediately there. We hoped it would be like this because in the last game he got better and better and better, minute by minute, so we wanted to build on that. He looked really, really good tonight – all of them, really hard-working and good football-playing with a lot of good passes.

Having come off the bench to score against the Saints in Gameweek 33, Jordan Henderson (£5.3m) reprised his more attacking central midfield role and was influential throughout, “assisting the assister” for Liverpool’s second goal.

The ex-Sunderland midfielder also teed up Mane for that aforementioned disallowed goal and set up a presentable chance that Firmino spooned over on the half-volley: indeed, no player on show recorded more key passes than Henderson.

Klopp said of his captain’s contribution in a more advanced role:

Hendo is a brilliant player and I am really happy that he can show that, that he can show it again. He obviously likes the position and so it was my fault that for one-and-a-half years he was in position number six – sorry for that! But we needed him there. It was a really good performance.

The second goal was brilliant and he had the cross for Sadio’s goal as well, and if it was an inch offside it was still a brilliant cross. Brilliant play and I liked it.

Alexander-Arnold provided plenty of width going forward and registered yet another assist but despite some decent individual displays in the Liverpool backline – Virgil van Dijk (£6.6m) again commanding – there was plenty of encouragement for owners of Chelsea assets going into Gameweek 34.

The Reds are without a clean sheet in four Premier League games and there were plenty of chances for Porto here, with visiting striker Moussa Marega spurning five promising opportunities.

Marega called Allison into action on three occasions and lashed wildly off target at either end of the game, with the Reds’ defence – which included a recalled Dejan Lovren (£4.9m) – not entirely convincing.

One other thing worth noting: Joe Gomez (£4.8m) was among the substitutes on Tuesday after four months on the sidelines with a leg injury.

Ahead of kick-off, Klopp explained his personnel choices at the back and why Georginio Wijnaldum (£5.5m) only made the bench:

Dejan has been training for about three or four weeks already. Joel played so many games, so it’s just to use fresh legs and the energy of Dejan. That’s pretty much all we changed.

Joe actually should have played a couple of minutes today in an internal friendly game behind closed doors, but Alberto [Moreno] was not ready for the bench and we don’t have a lot of left-back options left, so that’s why Joe is in.

It’s all good with Gini but of course, the intensity of the last couple of games and a little bit of a stiff back in the last few days, so that’s the situation.

Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, van Dijk, Milner; Fabinho, Henderson, Keita; Salah, Mane (Origi 72′), Firmino (Sturridge 81).