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Jurgen Klopp’s decision to leave out Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez for Liverpool’s trip to West Ham did not pay off as the Reds held out for a 2-2 draw.
The Liverpool manager put them on the bench having scored three goals in Liverpool’s last seven games before the match.
But the front three of Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz and Harvey Elliott remained wasteful as Liverpool took 28 shots but only scored twice.
Andy Robertson scored and Alphonse Areola scored an own goal after a pinball in the area, but it was not enough against the efforts of Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio.
Salah seemed upset in the pre-match warm-ups, but he, like Núñez, came on in the 79th minute.
He and Klopp had a heated argument when Liverpool made a triple substitution with the game at 2-2, leaving Reds fans worried about relational tension.
Mo Salah and Darwin Núñez were ruled out for Liverpool’s match against West Ham, which ended 2-2
Jurgen Klopp had made a bold decision after his profligacy against Everton and poor form.
Mohamed Salah and Jurgen Klopp were involved in a heated argument on the bench as the Liverpool star prepared to face West Ham.
Klopp initially approached his player and said something to Salah that quickly sparked a strange reaction from the prolific goalscorer who leads Liverpool’s scoring charts with 24 goals in all competitions this season.
Salah responded to his coach by continually waving his arms, pointing at the pitch and then pointing to a retreating Klopp who had resumed monitoring the action on the pitch.
However, Salah continued to berate the outgoing Liverpool manager and only stopped his display of discontent when striker Darwin Nunez intervened.
‘It doesn’t look good. Those types of things should be done behind closed doors,” Ally McCoist told TNT Sports.
The Reds could move level on points with league leaders Arsenal with a win over West Ham, but their title race is over, if not already.
They are two points behind Arsenal having played one more game, and one point behind Manchester City having played two fewer games.
There are just three games left in the Jurgen Klopp era before Feyenoord’s Arne Slot replaces him.