Mohamed Salah reveals boot change reason & why he missed first penalty

Mohamed Salah has revealed why he changed his boots at half-time after missing his first penalty in the 4-2 win over Newcastle on Monday night.

Liverpool ran out winners in a thrilling contest at Anfield that saw the hosts rack up a record expected goals total and register 34 shots in total.

Incredibly, all six goals on the night came in the second half, with Salah netting a brace after the break following a missed spot kick on 22 minutes.

The Egyptian, who will now depart for the Africa Cup of Nations, scored a tap-in from a well-worked move and then made amends for his earlier failure by converting another penalty late-on to confirm the Reds' win.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Salah revealed what was said in the dressing room at half time as Liverpool initially struggled to open the scoring despite a litany of chances.

“The players said in the dressing room, ‘we have to stay calm, we just have to play our football’,” he said.

“We missed a lot of chances anyway, I missed the penalty, after I was like ‘OK, you’re going to leave for the national team with that performance? Not really!’

“So I had to just really focus and just step up and try to make a difference. I managed to do so.”

Salah also came out for the second half sporting a new pair of boots – having swapped his white pair for blue ones.

The 31-year-old revealed the reason for the switch that played a part in his second-half double.

“The other ones [boots] I missed the penalty with, I just trained with yesterday,” he said.

“It’s not superstition because I play with many boots, but when I feel like it’s going to play with my head, ‘OK, out, change the boot’.

“I don’t like to have that going into the second half, ‘this one I didn’t score with yet’. No, change, keep my mind calm and focussed on the game.”

On his missed penalty, Salah admitted that he got 'confused', before rectifying his error by sticking to his guns with the second attempt.

He said: “The first one I was confused in the way that I saw the goalkeeping coach from outside waiting for him on one side, I was like ‘OK, let’s go in the middle’, then he managed to save it very well.

“Then the second one I was just like ‘OK, this is what I did in training’, I just carried on and did my thing.”

Liverpool's No. 11 has missed four of his last ten penalties in the Premier League – but still has a spot-kick success rate of 76% in all competitions across his career.