Liverpool make penalty decision for Chelsea after costly Mohamed Salah miss

Should referee Anthony Taylor award Liverpool a penalty at Chelsea this afternoon, there will be absolutely no hesitation in Liverpool minds.

If Mohamed Salah is on the pitch against his former club, he will once again be given the responsibility from 12 yards.

For only the third time in 22 attempts since arriving at Anfield, Salah failed to convert a spot kick when his effort was denied by Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel last Tuesday.

With Liverpool going on to lose 1-0 at the King Power Stadium – leaving them now 12 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City, albeit with two games in hand – it was a costly miss.

Not one, though, that Jurgen Klopp is expecting to linger too long in the mind of the 22-goal forward.

“We don’t have a lot of experience with Mo dealing with a crisis or whatever, because he didn’t have to“, says the Reds boss.

“With the penalty, it just makes him more greedy to score a goal in the game usually. It didn’t happen in that game but we didn’t play a really good game to bring Mo in more often“.

“He had another really good chance, and if we brought him in more promising situations I’m pretty sure he would have finished one of those off“.

“Missing a penalty is tough, especially if you then have the rebound go against the crossbar, that’s unlucky no doubt about that“.

Salah also missed a penalty at home to AC Milan in the Champions League this season, but went on to score during the game as well as hold his nerve to net winners from the spot against Atletico Madrid and Aston Villa.

Indeed, the Egyptian was similarly successful when, with Liverpool eventually having been awarded a spot kick by Taylor after a VAR check in the Anfield meeting with Chelsea in August, he blasted beyond Edouard Mendy to earn a 1-1 draw.

“These are top, top, top class players and they deal constantly with failure“, adds Klopp. “That’s our life. In the best game the boys play, many things didn’t work out and they have to deal with it during the game“.

“That’s what you learn pretty early as a footballer, and the better you are, the more often you will fail because you come constantly in these decisive moments, and nobody has ever succeeded in all their difficult situations“.

“Kobe Bryant is still the player with the most missed situations in NBA history but was one of the greatest players ever”.