Who knows what the narrative would have been had Dominik Szoboszlai not converted from the penalty spot?
The noise surrounding Mohamed Salah would only have gotten louder. More dropped points for Liverpool without their star man.
Yet it was Liverpool’s player of the season so far who took the responsibility from 12 yards out while the man who would have usually taken the penalty sat at home, almost 1000 miles away.
The sight of the players walking over to the away end and the travelling fans singing Arne Slot’s name at the full-time whistle told you all you needed to know.
After a horrid few days, Slot and Liverpool finally had something to smile about.
This was their fourth win at the San Siro in as many years but crucially their first away win in the Champions League without Salah since 2009.
Whether or not it is a turning point for Slot and co remains to be seen but it certainly felt massive. Not least with Michael Edwards, the chief executive, in attendance in Milan.
On Monday, goalkeeper Alisson Becker insisted that the players were behind the manager after arguably the toughest spell of his career.
On the pitch, they delivered with an assured display after Slot’s tactical tweaks and crucially kept a clean sheet following the capitulation at Leeds on Saturday.
Above all, the spirit and togetherness after a tumultuous 72 hours was notable. Liverpool travelled to Italy with a depleted 19-man squad and got the job done.
“It doesn’t change anything. There’s obviously so much noise from the outside world, which is normal when you don’t perform,” Virgil van Dijk told Amazon Prime Sport.
“It’s deserved as well. We want to improve, we want to be consistent and win games. We’re not doing it as much as we like. We have to stick together and be a unit as we have been. That’s what Liverpool stands for.
Left-back Andy Robertson added: “We all needed it. We know the results and performances aren’t good enough. It’s important that this club is in the Champions League. It was a huge result for all of us.”
BBC
