Paul Fennessy

LIVERPOOL SHOULD STILL have enough to overcome Galatasaray, despite this evening’s first-leg loss.

The Turkish side are invariably strong at home but less consistent away.

Of their six games at Rams Park in the Champions League this season, they have lost only once.

By contrast, on the road, Okan Buruk’s side have just one win and four defeats.

In the last round, they almost threw away a 5-2 first-leg victory against Juventus, needing extra time to get past the Italians.

With a less handsome 1-0 win to take to Anfield, it seems fair to suggest the Reds will still be confident of advancing.

But even if they do make it to the quarter-finals, Liverpool’s flaws this evening were starkly apparent.

Defensively, they were routinely suspect and lucky to concede only once — none of the back four played especially well, but Ibrahima Konaté produced a particularly error-ridden display.

Meanwhile, expecting the diminutive Alexis Mac Allister to mark Victor Osimhen for the set piece from which the hosts opened the scoring, with the latter providing a headed assist, was borderline incompetent.

Despite a promising opening, Liverpool were also lacklustre in attack for the most part.

The killer pass in the final third often eluded them, and they fluffed what rare chances came their way.

In one of their biggest games of the season, Mo Salah especially flattered to deceive.

The visitors struggled to create from open play, and it was telling that the only time they found the net (before VAR intervened) was from a set-piece.

None of the Reds’ other attackers was particularly influential either. However, after he was hauled off in the 60th minute following another ineffectual display, it felt like confirmation that Salah’s days at Anfield are numbered, even though less than a year has elapsed since he signed a lucrative new contract.

The Egypt international turns 34 in June and has been linked with a move away from the club — speculation that intensified after his dramatic public outburst criticising the club in December.

Salah subsequently apologised for his remarks and has been welcomed back into the fold. Still, the performances that led to his initial removal from the starting XI have hardly improved since.

On the face of it, Salah’s numbers aren’t too bad.

He has 16 goals from 41 appearances in all competitions.

Nonetheless, it is disappointing compared to the standards he set last season, when he found the net an incredible 35 times in 54 appearances, and was named the PFA Player of the Year.

In addition, Salah’s record this year is less impressive when you break down where the goals have come from.

Four were in the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt. A further three have been in World Cup qualifiers for his country. Two have been in the Champions League, and two have been in the FA Cup.

That leaves five from 21 Premier League appearances compared with 29 from 38 last year. In other words, in Liverpool’s biggest games, he has too often looked anonymous.

By contrast, Erling Haaland, the man who Salah beat to the Golden Boot in the 2024-25 campaign, has 22 goals from 28 this season.

Attackers aren’t always judged solely by goals scored, but Salah is a luxury player who doesn’t contribute much out of possession.

He is simply in the team to score and assist, and there have been too many fixtures this season where he has failed to do so and looked like a liability.

Of course, Liverpool, as a team, have struggled to function and looked a pale shadow of last season’s title winners.

Despite the big changes that took place last summer, you suspect another overhaul is required in the coming months.

Virgil van Dijk has had his poorest season since joining the club. Konaté has rarely convinced. Andy Robertson, another fine servant, looks past his best. Few, if any, of the summer signings have justified their price tag. And serious questions must also be asked of manager Arne Slot, having overseen this mess and orchestrated one of the meekest Premier League title defences in recent memory.

Offloading Salah, who tonight surpassed Jamie Carragher’s Liverpool record for Champions League appearances with 81, should be among the priorities.

The attacker will be remembered as one of Liverpool’s greatest ever players — he is behind only Ian Rush and Roger Hunt in the club’s all-time scoring charts.

But a side aiming to compete at the elite level and win the Champions League, like Liverpool, cannot afford to accommodate passengers regardless of what they have done in the past, and Salah is beginning to outstay his welcome.