PENALTY POWER PLAY: Klopp’s Arsenal of Spot-Kick Specialists Revealed! Who Will Step Up?”

Mohamed Salah is the number one penalty-taker for Liverpool – but Jurgen Klopp is not short of options from the spot

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool celebrates with team-mates after scoring from a penalty during the Premier League match at Brighton & Hove Albion on October 8 2023

When referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot after Dominik Szoboszlai was hauled to the ground, there was no doubt to whom the responsibility would be passed.

Darwin Nunez may have notched a penalty a few weeks earlier at LASK, but that the Uruguayan stood inside the area holding the ball was to merely ensure the stage was properly set for Mohamed Salah to step up from 12 yards.

Sure enough, the Egyptian tucked away from the spot to help Liverpool ultimately earn a 2-2 draw at Brighton in their last outing ahead of the recent international break.

It was the third penalty the Reds had been awarded in the top flight this season, already only one fewer than they were given during the entirety of the previous campaign.

And it allowed Salah to improve his impressive conversion rate from the spot to 82.35%, having scored 28 of his 34 penalties. For some context, only 11 Liverpool players can boast a better ratio of which only two – Jan Molby and Steven Gerrard – have taken more spot kicks than Salah. Phil Neal, who was the Reds’ chief penalty taker for part of the late 1970s and early 1980s, scored 38 of 51 penalties.

Salah has retained the trust both in himself and that of Klopp despite having missed three of his previous five penalties before scoring against West Ham United last month, which included failures in successive Premier League games against Bournemouth and Arsenal towards the end of last season.

“We had a conversation and he (Mo) wanted to stay the penalty-taker,” said Klopp at the time. “We had a normal conversation about it and I said ‘Okay, you are’. You don’t feel great in that moment and that’s what he said, because the pressure obviously increases with the penalties you miss.”

Not since Roberto Firmino was afforded the chance to complete a hat-trick against Arsenal in December 2018 has Salah not taken a penalty when on the pitch. And he contributed greatly to Liverpool being successful from 23 consecutive penalties between October 2018 and September 2021, a club record.

Firmino, though, has now departed. As too have James Milner – who scored 19 of 21 spot kicks – and Fabinho, who netted three times in the second half of the 2021/22 campaign. Indeed, Nunez is the only current Liverpool player other than Salah to have taken a penalty in regulation time for the Reds.

The position of being next in line behind Salah, then, is very much up for grabs, with the last few days suggesting there are numerous contenders. Nunez scored a penalty in Uruguay’s historic win over Brazil, Virgil van Dijk held his nerve to ensure Holland beat Greece in injury time, and Dominik Szoboszlai smashed home to earn Hungary a draw at Lithuania. Luis Diaz, though, failed to convert late on in Colombia’s goalless draw in Ecuador.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is another option previously mentioned by Klopp. But while the right-back has converted all three of his penalties in shoot-outs for Liverpool, he has yet to be entrusted with one during the regular course of a match.

If Liverpool are awarded a penalty against Everton on Saturday, Salah will step up to take. But if the Egyptian isn’t there, recent evidence suggests Klopp will be spoilt for choice.

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