Ken Early: Manchester City and Liverpool can be football’s new clasico

A second half illuminated with a goal of genius from one of the best players in the world, and enlivened by refereeing decisions of stunning incompetence and the hysterical reactions of a highly-strung supercoach. After the financial implosion of Barcelona, Liverpool v Man City stands alone, the closest thing we have left to La Liga's fallen clasico: this is now the game.

The true significance of Kevin De Bruyne’s late equaliser will not be known for months. For some of the participants, the importance of this match was more immediately apparent.

First: Mohamed Salah, whose individual brilliance rescued his team on a day when they were being outclassed. Last week Manchester City went to Chelsea and shut them down completely, allowing zero shots on target.

Their approach at Anfield was more patient than it had been at Stamford Bridge, where they had gone hunting Chelsea from the first minute. Nevertheless, by the 15th minute they had established total control and cowed Liverpool’s players and crowd with their superior possession game.

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The reason why Liverpool did not suffer the same fate as Chelsea was simple: they had Salah, whose sudden jink and burst past Rodri and Bernardo Silva created the opportunity for the opening goal out of absolutely nothing.

Seventeen minutes later, Salah followed up that assist with a goal that was surely the best of the 134 he has scored for Liverpool. Four City players were left trailing as he surged into the box from the right and scored with his right foot off the far post. Jürgen Klopp afterwards compared it to goals Salah had scored against Tottenham and Napoli in 2018, but for the skills, the opposition and the quality of the players he beat on the way, this was the best.

New contracts

From a personal career perspective, the timing wasn’t bad either. Liverpool have spent the summer signing up their major players to long-term deals: Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson, Alisson, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson have all signed new contracts this year.

Salah, whose contract expires at the end of next season, has not yet signed. Tabloid reports suggest he is looking for £500,000- a-week, which would be two and a half times his current salary.

Salah’s true demands are probably less, but not much less. Cristiano Ronaldo earns half a million a week at Manchester United, with David de Gea and Paul Pogba earning almost twice what Salah earns at present. PSG have several players earning on that level.

Why should Salah settle for less? Liverpool can complain about their rivals inflating the market. But this is what it now costs if you want to keep the best. If they were to pay Salah £20 million a year, it would represent about four per cent of their current turnover. That doesn’t seem an outlandish sum for a player who scores at a higher rate than anyone in the history of the club, and who has missed only three matches through injury since arriving at Liverpool in 2017.

Liverpool’s apparent reluctance to meet Salah’s demands may be related to his age: he turns 30 next summer. But as we are seeing, a footballer’s 30th birthday is not the portent of inevitable decline it used to be.

The top three players in last season’s European Golden Shoe rankings were Robert Lewandowski (age 33), Lionel Messi (34) and Ronaldo (36). This season names like Karim Benzema (33), Jamie Vardy (34) and Edin Dzeko (35) are all high in the standings. Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ronaldo share the distinction of having scored more than 300 goals after their 30th birthday.

The pattern of players maintaining good physical condition long into their 30s has been seen across all sports. Football’s stricter rules have something to do with it too: today’s experienced goalscorers can keep preying on defences long after their equivalents in previous generations had been forced into retirement with injuries. At 29, Salah may just be coming into his prime.

That said, there are limits. Today a top centre-forward can get away with being 35. Full-backs, maybe not. James Milner is celebrated as a fitness freak, unbeatable in pre-season bleep tests, regularly covering more ground than anyone else on the pitch, and so on. But it was asking a lot to expect him to keep up with Phil Foden, whose penetrating runs were backed by the combined creative abilities of Joao Cancelo, Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne and even Ederson.

‘Let it flow’

Milner v Foden had the makings of an interesting test case for the Premier League’s “let it flow” refereeing philosophy. In the event, it was incredible that Milner made it to half-time without being sent off. He was booked for hauling down Foden on 42 minutes, but he should have also been booked for the foul just outside the area several minutes earlier.

By the end of the half even Ederson was targeting Milner with long balls over the top, and it was astonishing when he reappeared after the break. Klopp, you felt, was really asking for that red card. It must have been a sobering moment for the obvious candidate to replace Milner, Joe Gomez.

On 69 minutes Foden got away from Milner again to equalise, but Klopp’s appetite for punishment remained unsated. Four minutes later, Bernardo Silva got away from Henderson down the left, only to be sent somersaulting through the air by Milner’s clearly deliberate trip. Astonishingly, the referee did not produce the second yellow card.

At last Klopp acted, sending on Gomez for Milner. Moments later the great Salah goal made it 2-1. At this point, it looked as though Pep Guardiola was learning what Alex Ferguson meant when he talked in the 1980s about opposition teams coming away from Anfield “choking on their own vomit” because of unjust decisions. “In this situation a City player is sent off, 100 per cent,” he said afterwards, and it was hard to disagree, though City’s late equaliser meant that his tone was relatively magnanimous.

Still, City lodged a complaint about a Liverpool fan allegedly spitting at members of their staff. If they had not got at least a point after that performance and those refereeing decisions, it would have infused this rivalry with an edge of grievance and real anger. That may be the only ingredient the new clasico is missing: it’s already got everything else.