Arne Slot needed some inspiration with his Liverpool team looking down and out in Paris so turned round to those waiting patiently on the substitutes’ bench.
Mohamed Salah, sporting a neutral facial expression but most likely brimming with frustration internally, was left waiting in his high-vis bib and club tracksuit.
When in desperate need of a goal at 2-0 down to Paris Saint-Germain, Slot did not fancy the man with 255 of them for the club.
Not for the first time this season, the forward was deemed surplus to requirements. Soon, he will wave farewell after nine years and whether Slot likes to admit it or not, he is losing a mighty good player. The best of his era at Liverpool, maybe the Premier League in general, the greatest goalscorer we have seen in England over the last decade.
Fresh on the back of spending £450million last summer, those in charge at Anfield are now drafting up their plan for how to replace Salah – and it won’t be easy.
Daily Mail Sport has looked at how they will do that, which players they are targeting and what money is available.
When in desperate need of a goal at 2-0 down to Paris Saint-Germain, Arne Slot did not fancy Mohamed Salah, a man with 255 of them for the club
What sort of player do Liverpool want?
It was a question we posed to Slot last Friday and he joked that with the way football is going, someone who could take a long throw-in would be beneficial.
But on a serious note, Liverpool have noticed that the game is evolving and they could turn to a more tricky, pacy winger that can unlock a deep defence.
Just take the last few games for the Reds. They were undone by Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s mazy run for PSG’s second goal, several doses of brilliance from Rayan Cherki and Antoine Semenyo at Manchester City, and trickery from Yankuba Minteh (more on him later) at Brighton.
And then look around at the world’s best teams. Pep Guardiola used to prefer the sensible, conservative approach of Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva on the wings when City won the Treble – now he wants the unorthodox styles of Cherki, Semenyo and Jeremy Doku. The best team in Europe this season are probably Bayern Munich and their attackers are similar with Luis Diaz, Michael Olise and Serge Gnabry as a trio behind Harry Kane.
‘We are aware that football has changed in England,’ Slot said last week. ‘We will always try to have our own style, but we cannot shut our eyes for the new reality.
‘And that it’s not only low blocks, it’s also…