Preamble

Those who took the liberty to gather the spoils on Tuesday, UEFA Champions League night at Anfield will tell you that Liverpool plundered the Parisians and made their coveted and expensively assembled squad look like knock-offs from a cheap store. Okay, maybe the description is a bit exaggerated but that’s exactly what I thought, jaw dropped as the Reds ran out 3-2 victorious against PSG on Champions League Day 1 in a dominant performance decorated by the men in red but in the stands’ “you never will walk alone” spirit packaged in a song-like noises while the visitors lit flames as they tried to settle in an unfamiliar hostile Anfield environment.  What really was on my mind as the referee blew the final whistle to signal the end of the match was, “Salah and Mane are onto something special here. They could go down in history as flanks of the most devastating attack in world football”. My African blood couldn’t help but selfishly feel proud for the lads.

Great attacking trios in recent times

Well, you probably won’t exhaust the list but names that cannot be robbed of a mention include Barcelona’s MSN with Messi, Suarez and Neymar who led Barca’s capture of the Champions League, La Liga and Copa Del Rey trophies under Luis Enrique in the 2014/15 season. El Clasico rivals Real Madrid also had BBC with Bale, Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo who were regular Champions League entertainers especially in their recent three straight conquest of the competition before Ronaldo departed for Serie A giants, Juventus. PSG’s “prada” looking MEN with Mbappe, Edinson Cavani and Neymar have been bullying opponents in the French Ligue 1 but got a taste of their own medicine against part of the FAB 3, Salah, Firmino and Mane. Liverpool’s attacking trio may not have costed big money to put in place but are really claiming a stake at global dominance. Here is a number for you; in May 2017, the FAB 3 Became the highest scoring trio in a single UCL campaign with a total of 29 goals surpassing Real Madrid’s BBC who had a record 28 goals. With growth inevitable, the extent of the FAB 3’s reign is unimaginable?

26 is the magic number

Now make no mistake, Salah and Mane were far below they usual standard in the PSG contest on Tuesday night with both of them failing to find the back of the net but what we saw from the match revealed a lot about how much they can grow and win even bigger battles. In particular, Mane appeared to be too keen to score such that at times he would shoot when the best decision would have been laying off the ball to a teammate. Salah happened to be a regular victim of such decisions. There are reports that even the Egyptian fans are not happy with their starman being starved off goals because of a supposed dysfunctional relationship with the Senegalese. Clearly, these two can understand each other more. If they can be devastating at this level, imagine the damage they could do if the bromance improves. With Roberto Firmino being the anchor of this cutting edge trio, the slower of the two players who holds up the ball and shoves defenders for the flankers in Mane and Salah to run down the wings and inside the box - we are in for a real treat. To add to their ability, Liverpool’s trio still has more time to show the world what they are all about. They are all still 26, a prime age in football and relatively young compared to other trios. If the doubters thought Liverpool’s Champions League final appearance was a fluke, their recent dominance in the Premier League was infant then perhaps the Tuesday night win against one of the celebrated teams in the world in PSG showed that they are really open for business and that their attackers are not shy to shop anywhere, anytime and from anyone.

Klopp, the key orchestrator

In most cases, the challenges have always been to keep the trio, that is to ward off interest from any potential suitors seeking some members of the trio and to distribute the pressure from just the trio to the whole team.

Salah, Mane and Firmino have entertained us, maybe have even just begun and all media eyes and any other eyes are likely to narrow down to only their performances. This usually adds unnecessary pressure on the players to deliver all the time which is next to impossible. Liverpool Manager, Jurgen Klopp seem to know one or two things about managing players and expectations. With his midfield set-up also able to bang in goals in Keita, Milner and Wijnaldum and excess world class attackers in Shaqiri and Daniel Sturridge, you would really back the German to always do the right thing by taking some players off the firing line and mix up the recipe as he did against PSG to preserve the potency of the entire team.

Whether or not the Merseyside club would be able to retain the services of all three for the forseeable future is really down to the future when it arrives. Only time will tell. For now, we will just sit back, relax and enjoy Salah and Mane, African brothers who are protagonists in the world conquering trio that is FAB THREE.