John Brogden claims the top spot and the Fred Moss Memorial Trophy
First and more locally, a celebration took place on Saturday for one of the Liverpool & District AA's angling greats and a past chairman with that, Fred Moss.
For this one match secretary Mike Dickson once again put together another superb open match in which many anglers who knew Fred personally, travelled far and wide to Maghull for the draw held at the MCA.
With canal in fine form, particularly upon the noted areas of late, Wirral's Alan Dewhurst's emphatic win on Wednesday with a great catch of bream and skimmers for 36.8.0, alerted not only our visitors, but the many local Liverpool rods participating who were all sure to be looking to sit on a few fish in order to hopefully enjoy a great day's fishing like Dewhurst had experienced midweek.
This one, which was pegged out through Maghull, was a match in which many regulars looked for a favoured draw on some historically good areas in which bream inhabit and there was no doubt at all that one or two of the field would be relishing a chance of a decent draw on the day.
READ MORE: More than 100 Easter Eggs donated by anglers at the Liverpool & District Angling Association Good Friday Open
Taking advantage of just that was Matrix Leigh Tackle & Bait rod John Brogden, and here landing himself on a noted peg on Maghull's cricket pitch area, Brogden made the most of it with no mistakes on taking the best weight of the day for 13.10.0 and of course the Fred Moss Memorial Trophy.
Next, taking a ride out along the East Lancashire Road to Carr Mill at St Helens on Monday, this was another match that saw many anglers taking part visiting from all over the region, including yours truly, all to also share their thoughts of another past member who was also very fondly respected, Dez Lowcock.
As many will recognise, this huge natural expanse of water looking out to Billinge is a terrific venue.
It's full of many species of fish including double figure carp and huge bream shoals along with roach, perch and the odd tench that are rare but present.
So with nearly 50 anglers present to honour Dezzy on this one, this match was spread across the venue with many options open for everyone with regards to a personal approach.
One man who doesn't need any confidence on Carr Mill is Local St Helens rod Peter Tickle. A winner on many occasions within his angling career, Tickle's knowledge on the dam is second to none particularly when looking at the present form as a guide.
In this one Tickle drew a very much favoured area and with a presence of mind on his approach, he made no bones about how he was going to tackle it.
Opting for a long pole approach at 15 metres and a 'back-up' of using an open ended feeder on the tip, Tickle took bream, skimmers and an unexpected 3lb tench for an overall winning weight of 17.4.0 to pick up the now coveted Dez Lowcock Memorial Shield.
In second place was Steve Mitchell, who, pegged nearby on peg 8, took skimmers for 11.8.0 which closely outdid Royton's Jim Evans's 11lb third place effort.
Manchester's Mark Harris and Skelmersdale's Steve Wooding took 8lb for joint fourth position.
READ MORE: Manchester's Mark Harris claims the top spot with an incredible 54lb net of bream
READ MORE: It's all about the bream
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Salah exclaimed during a post-match interview, adding his name to a growing list of players who extol the virtues of the discipline for helping improve flexibility and core strength, both of which are important in protecting against injuries. It has also helped Salah control his mental and emotional state. In yoga routines, focus is often placed on the breath and the ability to breathe from the stomach rather than the chest, helping calm the nervous system. Rosenblatt introduced breathwork to the England team in 2020 after seeing how drained the players were following a penalty shootout victory over Colombia in the last 16 of the 2018 World Cup. 'Everyone was smashed,' he recalls, 'not necessarily physically. I'd never really seen it before but emotionally, psychologically, they were completely gone. 'We recognised that if we wanted to take the next step, that was something we'd have to recover from. 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He would combine this with researching goalkeepers he was coming up against in games. 'His robustness is one of the factors behind him consistently producing the form he has,' says Dr James Malone, a sports scientist who has worked in the Premier League, including at Liverpool between 2010 and 2013. While he does point to Salah's low centre of gravity, 'well-conditioned' physique and recovery work as being part of that robustness, Malone also says it can be attributed to the way he plays. 'He's very selective with his movement,' he adds. 'It's similar to Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi; they do run and they are intense when they run but they're very selective when they engage with certain actions. 'For example, you won't see Salah running around putting in sliding tackles. He'll typically jump out of the way of things. In that way, he protects himself in games and then when the ball comes and he engages in the attack, he comes alive and starts to do his high-intensity movement.' 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Salah generated almost 2.5 shots per game from his off-ball movement last season, the highest in the data available since 2018-19, despite moving less frequently. The other notable change in Salah's movement last season was where his off-ball runs began. Under Slot, Salah's running patterns mimicked more traditional wing-play patterns, in contrast to the advanced inside-forward role he occupied in Klopp's system. With this shift, Salah is now starting his runs from deeper positions. His share of runs starting in advanced areas has declined significantly, dropping from 56 per cent in 2019-20 to 44 per cent last season. By shifting his starting position, Salah is operating with more space in front of him, giving him a clearer runway to build speed before engaging defenders. From 2018-19 onwards, Salah has started his runs progressively further from the nearest defender, a trend that could be as much about defensive adaptations as it is about his own movement. Opposition defenders may now be wary of pressing too tightly, instead allowing themselves more time to react to his devastating bursts forward. Whether a deliberate strategy from Liverpool or a reactionary measure from opponents, the increased distance between Salah and his marker gives him more time to accelerate into space. This extra space has preserved his effectiveness and allowed him to reach even greater speeds. His peak sprint velocity last season of 31.1 km/h is his highest on record, showing that while his frequency of high-intensity accelerations has declined, his ability to hit top-end remains undiminished. Nutrition is another cornerstone, and one that Salah places so much importance on that he has been known to pay close attention to how his team-mates are eating, too. In pre-season before the 2021-22 season, he spotted Liverpool youngster Harvey Elliott with two pieces of white bread on his plate and advised him to halve his intake. 'My breakfast is mainly bread with beans or avocado,' Elliott told The Times in 2022. 'Now I have changed it to brown bread, which is a lot healthier.' Advertisement In a lighthearted interview with Men in Blazers last year, Salah was asked by the host how he might get his kind of abdominal muscles. 'You need to cut bread, or at least have gluten-free bread,' Salah replied. 'Less dairy, don't eat cheese that much and stay in the green stuff… and cut out the sugar, as well.' Salah has listed broccoli, sweet potatoes, fish, chicken and salad as his favoured foods, and sushi when he eats out. He allows himself pizza once a month, loves burgers but hardly ever eats them and allows himself a koshari (a dish made with pasta, rice, lentils, chickpeas, and spices) whenever he returns to Egypt. Alcohol never comes into the equation as Salah, a practising Muslim, is teetotal — something Klopp once hailed as part of the reason he and then-team-mate Sadio Mane could recover so swiftly from playing seven matches in the 2022 AFCON. Dr Rob Naughton, a performance nutritionist who has worked with clubs and privately with international players on behalf of Intra Performance Group, explains that carbohydrates are the key fuel for footballers but that it's important that intake is periodised. 'They'll have low training days where carbohydrate demands are low but then when you're building up for a game, you need to bring it up,' he says. 'That's a way of helping players to maintain an optimal body composition while also ensuring they are fuelling their match demands.' Salah might choose alternative sources of carbohydrates to bread but Naughton says that it's important that each player finds what works best for them. 'One of the clubs I work with provides gluten-free pasta. When eating larger amounts of wheat-based pasta (as they might the day before a game), some players will bloat a bit and we've found that we get this symptom less frequently when choosing a gluten-free option.' Salah's performances last season were an accumulation of many factors, both on and off the pitch. The thread that connects them all is his willingness and desire to do everything he can to perform at his best, no matter what his age. 'Whether it's breathwork, visualisation, meditation, pilates, yoga, core training, to do that stuff every day, day in, day out, requires an enormous amount of discipline, effort and consistency,' says Rosenblatt. 'And that's not even talking about the football, too!' Advertisement But can Salah really keep improving as he hits his mid-thirties? Rosenblatt describes working with a player who has recently hit a personal best in their peak speed at the age of 33, and says it isn't all that unusual. 'I've worked with other athletes who are peaking in their power and explosive outputs at later stages of their careers — it's simply because they've invested effort and energy into it,' he says. 'It's the willingness to do everything around football and deliver consistently that is really critical, and impressive. 'Even with a significant injury history, if a player has the mindset that they're going to do more than just extend their career, you could have someone who's going to keep getting better physically, has a ton of experience and knows how to play the game. That's a very dangerous player — and that's what you're seeing with Salah.' Additional reporting: Conor O'Neill Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
