Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez need to “find the ketchup bottle” if Liverpool are to stand any chance of winning the Premier League, says former Reds goalkeeper Sander Westerveld.
Salah scored in the Europa League quarter-final second leg at Atalanta on Thursday, as the six-time Champions League winners crashed out 3-1 on aggregate.
The Egyptian also had a big opportunity to make it 2-0 to the Reds in the first half, with Jurgen Klopp’s team needing to win by at least three goals in Italy to stand any chance of progressing, following their 3-0 loss in the first leg at Anfield last week.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live about how the Reds need to respond as they resume their push for the Premier League title race, Westerveld said: “The players know how to deal with that pressure. Hopefully everyone will be back fit and if we keep playing like we played in the league, we need to tighten the defence. We just need the strikers. Even Salah. Salah didn’t look like the player he has been the last couple of years.
“In Holland, we have a saying from Ruud van Nistelrooy: ‘It’s like a ketchup bottle.’
“It’s a player that doesn’t score for five games and then they get one goal and it all goes loose and he scores for fun. Hopefully Salah and Nunez find the ketchup bottle and open it and the goals flow out for the rest of the season.”
Westerveld also believes the hectic schedule was “too much” for Liverpool and sees the positives in being able to now focus on domestic action.
“I think it is so difficult to be involved in all those competitions,” he said. “It was just a little bit too much. The last couple of games it looked like they lacked a bit of energy. They can’t play full press anymore, even against Crystal Palace.
“Yesterday it didn’t look right from the start of the first minute in the second half, [but] it is still game on [in the league].
“Everyone knows Man City has a team that can win every game, as they have done before. But we are still in there and now we can focus on the league.”
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