Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards reckons he knows why Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has struggled in recent weeks.
Newcastle lifted their first domestic trophy in 70 years against Liverpool on Sunday as the Magpies won the League Cup final with Eddie Howe’s side looking by far the most dangerous side throughout the game.
Dan Burn opened the scoring on the stroke of half-time before Alexander Isak doubled their lead on 52 minutes to send the Geordie end of the stadium into raptures.
Federico Chiesa did get one back in the fourth minutes of second-half injury time but it was no more than a consolation for Liverpool, who will now concentrate on wrapping up the Premier League.
Salah was ineffective against Newcastle as the Geordie defence did well to nullify his threats, while he had a couple of quiet matches against Paris Saint-Germain too as Liverpool were knocked out the Champions League.
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Ramadan, which is the holiest month of the Islamic calendar, began on February 28 and will last until March, and Richards reckons the fasting Salah is doing could be having an impact on his displays.
Richards said on the Rest Is Football podcast: “Don’t forget Salah is in Ramadan now as well where he’s fasting.
“It’s only normal that he’s not gonna have the same energy levels as when he can eat.
“For him to be actually on that pitch playing at that level is absolutely outstanding just to be there you know.”
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Regardless of that, Salah has been magnificent form this season with the Liverpool star contributing 32 goals and 22 assists in 43 matches in all competitions.
And Richards reckons some of Salah’s Liverpool team-mates may need to step up, he continued: “I think this team is so reliant on Mo Salah. Expecting a worldie from him, a penalty, a free kick… whatever it may be.
“I just thought from Liverpool’s point of view the performance was a bit flat. Maybe it was psychologically from the PSG result.”
Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher admitted that the Reds were second best to Newcastle throughout the final in a frustrating day for Arne Slot’s men.
Kelleher said after the match: “It’s very disappointing. It’s a tough one to take for all the lads.
“To be fair to Newcastle, I thought they deserved it, so fair play to them. We’re bitterly disappointed.
“It’s tough to take, obviously. I think we know ourselves we could perform better than that, which is probably that bit extra hard to take.
“To be fair to the lads, they gave everything, ran as hard as we could, but we just came up a bit short.”
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