Star Salah and what this league phase means – 5 talking points from Liverpool 2-0 Bologna

Liverpool overcame a tricky Bologna test to make it two wins out of two in the Champions League group stage.

Liverpool 2-0 Bologna

Champions League (2) | Anfield
October 2, 2024

Goals: Mac Allister 11’, Salah 75′

---

Star man Salah again

No player has played more minutes under Arne Slot for Liverpool than Mohamed Salah.

While the other forward players are rotated, or regularly subbed midway through the second half, Salah remains constant.

He now has six goals and five assists in nine games so far this season, having already scored in all three of the competitions in which Liverpool have played.

The goal against Bologna was his first in the Champions League, as the game in Milan was one of only two games in which he has failed to register a goal or an assist in 2024/25.

The Egyptian finished the game with three key passes in total, one of them the assist for the opening goal, perfectly placed into an area at the far post where both Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz were waiting.

He could have had more, such were the positions he regularly finds himself in and the threat he regularly poses.

The rest of the team feels more functional, with no lack of individual quality within that system, but Salah remains the go-to star, under Slot as under Jurgen Klopp.

 

Evading the man-marking

Bologna played with a high press, man-marking Liverpool high up the pitch at goal kicks.

This led to some problems for the Reds towards the end of the second half as they often got stuck in their own half. Dan Ndoye and Kacper Urbanski had decent chances for the visitors during this period.

On a couple of occasions, Liverpool were effective playing over this press to the forward players, and Alisson played one particularly good pass over Bologna to Salah.

Some of this was reminiscent of the Atalanta game against Liverpool in the Europa League last season which saw the Italian team come away from Anfield with a 3-0 win and ultimately saw Klopp’s Liverpool exit the competition at the quarter-finals stage.

This game was an altogether different proposition, with not as much riding on it and against a team who weren’t as effective as Atalanta.

Either way, Liverpool have struggled in such games before, but not this time, as they came out in the second half and made sure of the win, with a clean sheet to boot.

 

Nunez fails to make an impact

Just when Liverpool could have done with a centre-forward to hold up the play and keep the ball amid an intense man-marking defence, Nunez couldn’t quite provide it.

The Uruguayan was starting his first game in Europe this season, having been on the bench in Milan. He’s only started one game in the league, too.

Even though this is an area that’s seen a but more rotation than others so far in Slot’s tenure, it’s obvious that his go-to central forward is Diogo Jota.

With an hour gone, Jota replaced Nunez, who had not made the impact he or his manager might have liked.

It was a sub you could see coming, but there is still plenty of time for Nunez to make an impact this season.

 

Alisson plays his role

Whether it was stopping shots or starting attacks, Alisson continues to show why he is one of the best around between the posts.

Bologna had more shots in total than Liverpool, and the Brazilian saved well from a couple of the more dangerous ones from Kacper Urbanski and Riccardo Orsolini. Meanwhile, only Virgil can Dijk had more touches than Alisson‘s 65.

There were a couple of unsure moments, as there always will be when playing out from the back in such a manner, but Alisson is never flustered.

There is never really any question about Liverpool’s ability to play out in this manner as there are of many other teams, and much of that is down to the goalkeeper.

Having saluted the Kop as they sang his name, the Liverpool goalkeeper went straight over to do a TV interview for TNT Sports.

His role in this team extends much further than stopping shots, and he showed that again.

 

What does this mean?

It’s difficult to get into the first season of this new Champions League format as it feels there is little at stake in these early games.

Liverpool now sit fifth out of 36 teams in this early league table, and are one of seven teams to have won both of their games so far.

As was the case even in the previous version of the Champions League, this league phase is about getting the job done and qualifying. This is one thing we know.

It’s about managing the squad around this while at the same time keeping up with fellow title challengers in the league.

It remains to be seen how important the final games of this league phase will be, and whether teams can afford to rest players by that time, but for now, just win each game and work out what it means later, which is what Liverpool are doing so far.