Ex-Liverpool star Don Hutchison has blasted Reds’ forward duo of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane for their performance against Cardiff City on the weekend.
Liverpool has been criticized for their profligacy and their wastefulness at times this season and there was a similar case when the Reds hosted Cardiff City at Anfield on Saturday. Despite a comfortable 4-1 victory at the end, there were long periods in the game when Liverpool looked far from their fluent best.
Even though Salah set up two goals and grabbed a goal for himself while the Senegalese Mane notched up two goals, the two African superstars were heavily criticized by former Scottish international Don Hutchinson for their awful outing at Merseyside.
While speaking as a pundit on beIN Sport the 47-year-old Hutchinson stated his true thoughts on the game against Liverpool, “If no one’s seen this game, this was my commentary game at the weekend, Mo Salah scored one and got two assists and Sadio Mane scored two. The two of them were horrendous. They had such a bad game it was incredible. Salah wasn’t going to miss the first one, Cardiff’s defending wasn’t great. “
Hutchinson went on to add the dry spell that Liverpool went through after the early opening goal, “It took them a long time in Liverpool. You’re thinking at 1-0, ‘They definitely need a second. With Mane, he was having a five-minute spell where he was having an absolute stinker then it fell to him on his left foot and you can see the way he doesn’t celebrate, he just wanted to smash that as hard as he can as if to say, ‘You know what I’m not trying any flicks and tricks anymore, I’m smashing it.’ That’s exactly what happened. “
The former Liverpool midfielder also explained that Liverpool had to shift through the gears to ensure their victory, “Jurgen Klopp had to sweat for those three points, honestly. If you paint the picture, it was 1-0 hard graft, then it was 2-0 easy, then it was 2-1 hard graft again and back through the gears.”
It was not a great game of football after Liverpool went 1-0 up and they had to struggle for most parts. Fortunately, Swiss superstar Xherdan Shaqiri came on and gave the Reds the spark they desperately needed to kill off Cardiff City.
