Dominik Szoboszlai shares what he did to help Mo Salah before he took his penalty against Everton

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Dominik Szoboszlai says he tried a little trick to help Mohamed Salah focus before his penalty today.

Having already bagged two penalties this season, Salah was once again on target from the spot in Saturday’s Merseyside Derby.

It wasn’t a clear-cut penalty decision though, with a VAR check leading to protests from the Everton players. And speaking to LFCTV after the game, Szoboszlai says he spent that time making sure the ball was in Liverpool hands.

“To be honest I saw it from behind so I was probably 95% sure that it was going to be a penalty,” said the Hungarian. “I just held the ball so nobody took it and stood there to protect the penalty spot. Yeah, we are a team.”

Szoboszlai gives Salah assistance

This is a feature that we’ve seen employed by Liverpool going back to last season.

Back then, Jordan Henderson was usually the player who stood protecting the ball, to allow the penalty taker to prepare in peace.

This year, we’ve seen Virgil van Dijk take over the former captain’s duties, with Szoboszlai now doing the same.

With Salah a touch patchy now from 12 yards, it’s good to get every little advantage that we can. Having missed a spot-kick against Aston Villa in September, Mo now has three from three. Something is working nicely.

And today, with frustration starting to creep into Liverpool’s performance, it was vital that the Egyptian scored.

In the end Mo didn’t just score, he buried it with aplomb. An unerring finish into the bottom corner to give Jordan Pickford no chance.

Seven Premier League goals in nine games for our No.11 now. Maybe he’ll make a fist of the Golden Boot race this year. Erling Haaland, watch out.