Mohamed Salah is Liverpool’s fifth-leading penalty goalscorer, with 33 of his 211 goals from the Reds coming from the penalty spot.
Only Steven Gerrard (47), Jan Molby (42), Phil Neal (38) and Billy Liddell (34) have converted more, with it virtually inevitable that the Egyptian will climb the list further before his Anfield career eventually comes to an end.
Taking 40 spot-kicks in total, the 32-year-old boasts an 82.5% conversion rate. Such a return ranks 11th in Liverpool’s accuracy charts from the players to take five penalties or more.
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Meanwhile, such totals don’t include penalty shoot-outs. Stepping up in the 2022 League Cup final, 2019 European Super Cup final and two Community Shields against Man City and Arsenal, Salah boasts an 100% scoring record in such scenarios.
In such games, he took the Reds’ first penalty once and fifth spot-kick three times, emphatically reiterating the Egyptian’s status as the man for the big occasions who thrives under the greatest of pressure. And if that wasn’t convincing enough, his successful penalty in the 2019 Champions League final against Tottenham Hotspur and 95th minute winning effort for Egypt against Congo in 2017 to book their place in the 2018 World Cup in Russia certainly secured that well-earned reputation.
Yet despite such a record, Salah has found his status as Liverpool’s first-choice penalty-taker called into question on more than one occasion in recent years.
Having only missed one of his first 18 penalties for the Reds, he has since been denied six out of 22 times since September 2021 and four out of 13 since March 2023. Such patchy runs also don’t take into account a crucial missed penalty in a shootout defeat to Senegal as Egypt missed out on qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Calls for Salah to hand over responsibilities were at their highest in April 2023, when he had failed to even hit the target from 12 yards twice in a matter of weeks against AFC Bournemouth and Arsenal as Liverpool lost to the Cherries and drew with the Gunners. In hindsight, such dropped points would prove costly as the Reds missed out on Champions League qualification.
Such debate would also heighten following a surprise admission from the player himself to Gerrard in the LFC TV original, ‘When Stevie met Salah’, released in March 2023, as the Egyptian admitted: “I always hate pens. I don’t like the feeling.”
Former manager Jurgen Klopp had confirmed after Salah’s unsuccessful effort against Arsenal that he would hold talks with the Egyptian regarding whether he would continue as the club’s first-choice penalty-taker.
The forward would score his next two spot-kicks though before the end of the season, against Tottenham Hotspur and Fulham, as Klopp insisted his status had not been in doubt. However, the German would confirm the club’s penalty pecking order at that time, with former vice-captain James Milner losing his status as number two due to dwindling game-time.
“We had a conversation and he (Mo) wanted to stay the penalty-taker,” Klopp said after Salah’s winning penalty against the Cottagers. “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. ‘I don’t feel right in that moment’, because the pressure obviously increases with the penalties you miss.
“Then Fab or Trent, who are two and three, give the ball to them. (But) He smashed them and turned it around. This today was a super penalty, that’s really clear.
“I think with all the goals Mo scored, we can’t just judge it for two missed and go away from it. That’s what I meant when I said we’ll talk about it. It’s a conversation between two grown-up men.
“He enjoys these situations. The problem is before we missed the pen, we didn’t have one for 28 games or so. We train that, obviously, but it’s a special situation. You cannot. 28 weeks is like four years. It feels like forever and you can’t remember any kind of penalty.
“You miss and it doesn’t feel great. This little break after the Arsenal pen, the talk, the conversation, ‘Shake it off and go from there’. That’s exactly the right thing to do.”
Following the departures of both Fabinho and Milner in the summer of 2023, Liverpool’s penalty pecking order was handed an enforced change. Consequently, Darwin Nunez and Alexis Mac Allister both scored from 12 yards last season when Salah was not on the pitch.
Such questions had already again been asked of Salah following on from the Reds’ £35m signing of Mac Allister from Brighton & Hove Albion, and grew after misses against Bournemouth and Newcastle United. The Argentina international had converted eight of his nine penalties for the Seagulls, including all six in the 2023/23 campaign prior to his move to Anfield.
As Salah eased his way back into action after a recurring hamstring injury in March 2023, it would be Mac Allister who stepped up to score from 12 yards against both Sparta Prague and Man City in back-to-back games in March 2024. However, such responsibilities only fell his way after Nunez had hit the post against Chelsea, when both South American players had been on the pitch, in the Reds’ 4-1 win in late-January. The Uruguayan had previously converted from the penalty spot against LASK Linz the previous September.
However, it remains unclear where Trent Alexander-Arnold fell in such a pecking order, having previously been promoted to third-choice behind Fabinho. After all, he was not on the pitch at the times when Mac Allister and Nunez stepped up in the aforementioned four matches, so technically could still be a so far unseen second-choice behind Salah.
The sight of Alexander-Arnold stepping up to take England’s decisive fifth penalty against Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarter-finals on Saturday would unsettled supporters, including a doubting Manchester United legend Gary Neville. After all, his tournament has hardly gone to plan to date after being dropped by Gareth Southgate, while he has never taken a penalty before in his senior career.
Klopp’s third-choice admission in May 2023 would likely have escaped many, and been forgotten by most who acknowledged it at the time. Yet the Liverpool defender’s emphatic winning spot-kick will have been of no surprise to those who work closely with him back at Anfield.
While Alexander-Arnold might not have taken a game-time penalty for the Reds, he does actually boast an 100% record for Liverpool in shoot-outs. And despite being a defender, he has hardly been far down their pecking order either.
Netting a hat-trick of shoot-out penalties against Chelsea in finals, he took the Reds’ fourth penalties in each of their 2019 European Super Cup final, 2022 League Cup final and 2022 FA Cup final victories.
“It’s what we practise, a lot of practice goes into that moment,” Alexander-Arnold said after scoring the winner against Switzerland. “They are moments I enjoy.
“When the gaffer tells me I’m taking one, my belly doesn’t drop, I enjoy it, I practise it. I knew my spot, I knew I needed to execute it, I went out and did that.”
Such an admission is in complete contrast to Salah’s own confession to Gerrard two years ago.
While the Egyptian won’t be giving up penalty duty at Anfield anytime soon, his long-term future at Liverpool remains uncertain ahead of his contract expiring next summer. Now 32, regardless of whether he signs a new extension or not, it’s clear Salah is closer to the end of his Reds career than the start.
While Alexander-Arnold is currently also out of contract in 2025, it would admittedly be a surprise if the Liverpool vice-captain moved on. The boyhood Reds supporter is the club’s captain-in-waiting after all, behind Virgil van Dijk.
Should he take on the armband permanently in the future, the Scouser would follow in the footsteps of his hero in Gerrard. Yet he could soon inherit penalty responsibilities too, despite the presence of the likes of Mac Allister and Nunez.
Alexander-Arnold’s place in the Anfield pecking order is yet to be put to the test on the pitch. Third-choice for Liverpool 12 months ago, only time will tell if he was actually promoted to Salah’s deputy or instead dropped behind Mac Allister and Nunez.
But new head coach Arne Slot will no doubt have taken notice of his spot-kick heroics for England. Alexander-Arnold’s penalty prowess is now very much out of the bag.