'Liverpool fans want revenge and Mohamed Salah will be super motivated for this'

Neil Briody is the chairman of the Dubai Reds, Liverpool’s official supporters club in the city.

He has opted out of travelling to Paris for Saturday’s Champions League final, partly because he thinks his presence at finals brings his team bad luck.

Sat behind the Liverpool dugout, he had a close up view of Sergio Ramos’ fateful foul on Mohamed Salah when they last met Real Madrid in a final, in Kyiv in 2018.

He is not alone in thinking a revenge mission on Saturday night will be the perfect way to cap a stunning season.

How does the campaign rate so far?

No matter what happens on Saturday I would have to rate this season 10/10 - it’s been an incredible ride.

We have won two trophies already, and have our third Champions League final in five years to look forward to.

We took Manchester City to the wire once again, and we seem to be the only team in the Premier League at the moment who are capable of doing that.

It was heartbreaking to lose out by one point. Getting to 92 points, that is a ridiculous number to still not end up with the trophy.

The team have the mentality where they know they cannot drop any points, which is why it is full throttle from Day 1.

Sunday (losing out to City on the final day of the Premier League season) was tough to take, but we did everything we could possibly do to be in contention until the final day.

It is testament to the depth of squad that we have now, and what Jurgen Klopp has built to allow us to fight on four fronts.

We might still end up with just two trophies, but it has been an incredible rise and incredible season from an incredible team.

Liverpool 3-1 Wolves - in pictures

How have they done it?

We have ultimate trust in Klopp and his backroom staff. The analysts, the medical team, the coaches, they watch these players day in, day out and know what they are capable of.

They are obviously doing something right in training. A lot of the players who played against Southampton [in the penultimate league match of the season] hadn’t played for two months.

They got on the pitch and they were fit, raring to go, and know exactly what Klopp expects of them in terms of the pressing, the high line. They had the hunger, knowing that nothing short of three points is what we needed.

I always think back to when we played Everton in the FA Cup in 2020. He completely changed the team. Everyone raised their eyebrows, but we won 1-0.

Ever since then, personally I don’t even question what side he puts out because you have to have ultimate faith in what he does.

Southampton 1-2 Liverpool - in pictures

Is there any chance of Klopp overthinking his final tactics?

He has a philosophy about how he wants his teams to play, and he doesn’t differ from that.

You look at Pep Guardiola, and sometimes he will overthink and tinker, and try and outwit the opposition.

Klopp has the philosophy of how he wants his teams to play and sticks to it. In general, it has worked for him.

If you look at the Carabao and FA Cup finals this year, and the two previous Champions League finals he has got us to, he has stuck to how we have played all season.

All the players have bought into that. They know exactly what they need to do when they need to step up.

For example, we lost Fabinho for the FA Cup final. Jordan Henderson just stepped into that role, and arguably played better than Fabinho has played all season in that one game.

It means Klopp doesn’t have to change the team around tactically based on one or two players not being available.

Liverpool win FA Cup final - in pictures

Did you panic when Mohamed Salah limped out of the FA Cup final?

I think Salah has been off the boil since he came back from the Africa Cup of Nations, as well as with all the talk about his contract.

He has not been the same player he was in the first half of the season.

You do sigh when he goes off, but it is different now. We now have five players across those front three positions who are interchangeable now. If Salah comes off, there is Luis Diaz, or Roberto Firmino, or Diogo Jota.

A good example would be what happened in Kyiv in 2018 against Real Madrid. When he went off in that game, immediately we were thinking: ‘Where are the goals going to come from now? Where is the attacking threat?’

Now, if that happens we have players who can step into his role and give us a different angle to attack from.

A lot of teams will analyse Salah now and set themselves up to try and nullify his threat. Maybe that is why he hasn’t been as effective as he was earlier.

So bringing somebody else in could put some doubts in the mind of the opposition defenders.

Salah injured in 2018 Champions League final - in pictures

Is revenge for 2018 a motivating factor?

We felt robbed. It was malicious. They targeted Salah specifically. I was at that game and was very close to where the incident happened, sat just behind the Liverpool dug out.

You could see exactly what Sergio Ramos was trying to do. It was heartbreaking to see Salah have to go off.

At that point we didn’t have that ready-made replacement to come in. We had to shuffle the pack and then it put us at a distinct disadvantage, even though for large parts of that final we did outplay them.

It was a big blow for us, but I think more important was the performance of our goalkeeper, Loris Karius, which didn’t help us.

Liverpool fans want to get revenge on them, and Salah will be super motivated for this, to get one back on them.

A member of the Dubai Reds in Kyiv to watch Liverpool play the 2018 Champions league final against Real Madrid. Photo: Dubai Reds