OLIVER HOLT: Only a clean break from the Klopp era can get Slot out of this mess

When Arne Slot took over at Liverpool before the start of last season, he pressed pause on the period of transition that usually takes place at a club when a great manager like Jurgen Klopp leaves.

Slot kept faith with Liverpool’s established stars and made other players like Ryan Gravenberch even better than they were before, and the league title followed without the club missing a beat.

But now the pause button is off and there is no escaping the transition any more. Results are painful and embarrassing, and growing numbers are calling for Slot to be fired.

Those calls are premature, despite the varied humiliations of recent days, but it is time for Slot to embrace the transition and start being more ruthless with some of the remnants of the old brigade.

Wayne Rooney and Jamie Carragher are among those who have aimed heavy criticism at Mohamed Salah and even if Salah’s fellow Liverpool great Steven Gerrard has defended him, it feels as if Slot has to make a tough decision with the man worshipped for so long at Anfield.

There is only so long you can ignore poor form and fitful contributions from a player, even a player as good as Salah, but he has only scored twice in the league since mid-September and has not registered an assist in any competition since the 2-1 derby victory over Everton on September 20.

There have been times when Salah has carried Liverpool on his back with his brilliance but the hard truth is that he has become a luxury player at a time when Liverpool cannot afford to carry him.

At a time when Slot desperately needs Salah to step up, he has faded away towards nothingness and become a liability for a team that needs to defend from the front and try, somehow, to reverse a disastrous run of form.

It was the same again in the 4-1 home defeat by PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday night. Salah was all but anonymous.

He is far from being the only under-achiever in the side at the moment but he is one of them.

Salah is one of Liverpool’s greatest ever players and his dedication to his craft is renowned within the club but Slot needs something different on the right flank at the moment.

At a time when the club is leaking goals, they desperately need more solidity. Liverpool spent lavishly on new signings in the summer and the time has come for Slot to use them.

The best logic that some seem to have come up with for persisting with Salah is that Federico Chiesa isn't a viable replacement as a starter.

Surely, though, there is a case for playing Cody Gakpo on one flank against West Ham on Sunday and Hugo Ekitike – if he has recovered from the injury he sustained against PSV – on the other with Alexander Isak at centre forward.

Salah will be unavailable for Liverpool soon anyway. He is set to depart in the middle of December for Egypt’s attempt to win the Africa Cup of Nations and could be gone for more than a month, missing as many as eight or nine games if he leads his nation all the way to the final.

Slot should start the process of adapting to life without him now. It is time to shock new life back into the side with some bold decisions and hope that Salah comes back from AFCON rejuvenated and ready to challenge for his place in the team.

Until he leaves for the tournament in Morocco, Slot should use him off the bench.

When he returns, perhaps to a side that has been strengthened by the recruitment of Marc Guehi, Salah will either be playing for a new Liverpool manager or he will face a fight to get back into a side that has finally committed to life after Jurgen Klopp.