Mo Salah tried his best not to let one of his Liverpool teammates get a late runout at Anfield during the 3-1 win over Southampton this afternoon!
The Egyptian once again made a vital contribution for the Reds by scoring two second-half penalties, taking his goal tally for the season to 32 as the Premier League leaders overturned a half-time deficit.
Immediately after the second of those spot kicks, which finally put the result beyond doubt in the 88th minute, LFC made their sixth substitution of the game as Jarell Quansah replaced Trent Alexander-Arnold.
That’s one more than the usual maximum of five, but with Jan Bednarek going off with a head injury in the first half, it evoked a rarely-seen rule whereby both teams can avail of an extra change.
Salah tried to stop Liverpool making late substitution
Salah was unaware of that technicality, as was spotted by journalist David Lynch at Anfield, who posted about an amusing touchline interaction via X: “Mohamed Salah has just been desperately trying to stop Liverpool making a sixth substitution there so they don’t get docked points. Looked like the referee had to explain to him they get an extra one due to the earlier head injury.”
With Liverpool getting the win which takes them 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League overnight, the Egyptian can afford to laugh about his oversight now!
Joking aside, thankfully it’s a rule which rarely comes into effect, as the last thing we want to see on a football pitch is a player suffering a head injury. On that, we hope that Bednarek doesn’t suffer any lasting adverse effects from his accidental clash of heads with Ryan Manning.
Some eyebrows were raised when Arne Slot made just three changes to his starting line-up from the midweek win over Paris Saint-Germain, and the Reds’ head coach made the same number of substitutions at half-time today in response to a dismal opening 45 minutes from his side.
In the end his decisions were justified as Liverpool had to earn victory the hard way, with the interval changes having the desired effect as the Premier League leaders once again overcame a tricky situation to claim victory, in no small part thanks to Salah’s prowess from the penalty spot.
