Michael Owen slammed Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez for missing chances in Liverpool’s 1-1 draw with Luton Town on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp’s team needed a late Luis Diaz equalizer to avoid an embarassing defeat against the newly promoted side.
This isn’t because Liverpool didn’t create enough chances; they did, particularly Darwin Nunez, who lacked that cutting edge in the final third.
Michael Owen told Premier League Productions that the 24-year-old ‘has to learn’ the simple finish at the far post after seeing his effort, which turned out to be offside, blaze over the bar.
Darwin Nunez merely fired over the bar after Mohamed Salah cushioned down a header into his path, so the former England striker mistook ‘two’ massive misses in the space of a few seconds.
However, according to Michael Owen, the Egypt star attempted a goal and got it dreadfully wrong, which led to his teammate taking it a step further and exacerbating the situation.
Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez
“That’s a huge miss from Mo Salah,” Owen added. “If that had gone wide instead of to Darwin Nunez, we would have said, ‘wow, that’s the miss of the game.'”
“But then to have two in less than a half-second. We discussed that previously in the program. When the ball comes across like that, your only danger as a centre forward is hitting the ball over the bar.
“There is no one around you. The only thing you need to think about is keeping it down. Smooth it out. You don’t have to hit it perfectly. You can scratch it. Simply suffocate it and hold it down.
“It’s a finish he should probably learn.” He has some flaws in his game. But that was a huge opportunity for him.”
Liverpool has a long way to go
In terms of returning to the Champions League, you’d think Klopp and his team are doing well enough that they’ll be back next season.
It’s simply a matter of competing for the Premier League title and seeing if they have enough to challenge Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
Finally, Liverpool were the last team to dethrone the now-Treble champs.
But, at the end of the day, that Liverpool team was not the same as the one that will participate today.
