Mohamed Salah had to be reassured that Liverpool did not exceed the rules when a little -known substitution rule came into play during their victory over Southampton.
The Reds came on Saturday with 3-1 winners on the relegation-designed saints, with Salah who packs two out of the spot to help Liverpool with a comeback victory.
With the result everything but sealed, the side of Arne Slot looked to make a late replacement, what their sixth of the game was – one more than the usual five assigned.
For fear of a point deduction, it could be justified if Liverpool broke the rules and created an extra man, Salah tried to prevent the replacement to be completed.
However, Liverpool was allowed to make a sixth replacement due to an incident that took place earlier in the game.
Jan Bednarek was forced in the first half after collecting a head injury, in which Southampton used one of their concussion as such.
These can be made outside of their standard changes according to the Premier League rules – a law introduced in 2021 to encourage teams not to take risks when dealing with potential concussion.
It also makes an extra switch for the opposition possible – which means that when Bednarek made a place, Liverpool now had six subs to play instead of five.
This change in the Rulebook was apparently without the knowledge of Salah, who desperately did not allow his side to make what he considered an expensive mistake.
Only after referee Lewis Smith explained that no misconduct was being done, Salah allowed the late change, so Jarell Quansah came up in the 89th minute for Trent Alexander-Arnold.
The confusion of Salah called on a warm reaction of the believers in Liverpool, with one fan who wrote on Reddit: “Salah will not prevent us from winning the PL.”
While Liverpool victorized against the resident boxing bag of the Premier League, it was not all smooth sailing, because Southampton took a shock on the edge of the break – will benefit Smallbone from a defensive miscommunication between Alisson and Virgil van Dijk before went home.
Their advantage lasted only six minutes after the restart, however, where Darwin Nunez shot home to make it right.
The Uruguyan then won Liverpool a penalty a little later, which converted Salah with Aplomb.
The Egyptian yielded another spot kick with two more minutes to play to give Liverpool breathing space, so that the victory was sealed in another record-breaking performance.
In addition to climbing to an outright third place on the list of topcorers of Liverpool of all time, Salah has also become the joint-fifth highest scorer ever in the competition with Sergio Aguero on 184 goals.
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