The clue as to what was coming was actually to be found amid the wreckage of Liverpool’s FA Cup pounding at Manchester City.
Mohamed Salah was among the worst in red as his team lost 4-0 at the Etihad on Saturday but was still left on the field for all but the final 14 minutes. It was clear that the great Egyptian was never going to play in Paris.
Still, the sight of the greatest forward player in Liverpool’s history sitting for 95 minutes on the bench in France last night was sobering and served yet again to remind us just how far he has fallen as the end nears.
This was the night that could, at least in part, save Liverpool’s season. It wasn’t unreasonable to think it may help save coach Arne Slot his job. Yet Slot – who privately told people that Europe was his priority as far back as January – decided that his team was better off without Salah and the sorry but unavoidable truth is that he was right.
There was much talk in the wake of the City result about Liverpool players not trying. The evidence in support of that argument was found in runs not being tracked and crosses not being blocked.
Salah was exempt from that. The great Egyptian had indeed been trying and that, to a degree, made all of what we saw so much more painful.
He was trying when he ran clear early on and shot so poorly across goal that the ball went out for a throw-in. He was trying when he tried to dribble past Marc Guehi but carried the ball over the byline.
He was trying when James Trafford saved a weak toe-poked shot as though he was taking sweets from a child after about an hour and he was trying when he applied his instep to another chance soon after and watched the ball balloon over the crossbar like a rugby conversion.
And the penalty he telegraphed feebly to Trafford’s left shortly before his exit? Yes, Salah was trying then too.
But for Salah it looks and feels as though it’s over. The magic has gone and so has the yard of acceleration that gave wings to so much of his majesty. And with all that has disappeared the confidence and maybe that’s the biggest killer of all. For, in sport, when you no longer really believe in yourself then it’s reasonable to ask why anybody else should either.
My guess is that Salah starts next week against PSG at home in the second leg. A 2-0 goal deficit is not insurmountable and maybe, just maybe, Salah may detect the smell of Barcelona 2019 in his nostrils. That was the night a 0-3 problem became a 4-3 aggregate work of art and Salah still has his name written right through that miracle.
Now 33, Salah has not done much right this season but did apply a sumptuous finish to a chance as Liverpool beat Galatasaray 4-0 last month. If Liverpool and the Anfield crowd get their blood up next Tuesday then they will want Salah by their side and who really knows what happens then?
PSG will not travel with complacency and that may yet be the right time for Salah whereas last night clearly was not.
One thing Salah’s declared intention to leave Liverpool in the summer has done is freed up his manager to make objective decisions. Slot no longer has to fear the public and private consequences of leaving the great man out of the team.
There was surprise he wasn’t summoned from the bench last night but there shouldn’t be. It was the right decision. Liverpool were 2-0 down with 25 minutes left to play. A third PSG goal would have killed the tie. Why would a manager introduce a player who – for all his great gifts – has often been a defensive liability?
The time for magic is next week. Last night was about survival. If Salah has the wit and the will and the belief for one final exhibition of greatness then the stage is now set.
More broadly, what we witness now is the draining of a rare talent like water down a plug hole. For some, the magic seeps away slowly. For others it disappears like dust. Kyle Walker – from England international to nowhere in the space of a year – knows how that feels. So too now does Salah.
Careers at the very top of this game are precipitous. Maybe sometimes we forget that. The manner of Salah’s faltering and rather sad farewell at Anfield continues to shock us all.