Anfield talisman is out of form and being slated for not tracking back but no club whets his goalscoring appetite like Sunday’s opponents
Liverpool have been basking in the glow of the Mohamed Salah era for the past seven years. The next seven weeks will give us an indication as to how much longer that will last.
Salah is off form, the goals have dried up, and he does not look the same player as last season.
If Liverpool are to retain the title, he needs to sharpen up before December’s African Cup of Nations, thus ensuring he is as indispensable as ever to Arne Slot when he gets back.
There are valid causes for concern following recent performances. There are also valuable lessons from Salah’s career which serve as a warning to those prematurely predicting a decline. Do not write off Salah too soon because he has a habit of making criticism look silly.
This is not the first time questions have been asked about how long Salah can continue to produce at the highest level. When it happens, you tend to hear a strong defence from his manager. “I am not particularly concerned,” it was said of Salah during a mini slump. “That’s what happens to strikers. That’s how it is. We have to go through this, he has to go through that. He is one of the most experienced players we have in the squad.”
Those words were not from Slot after the recent defeat by Chelsea. They were spoken by Jürgen Klopp when quizzed about Salah’s diminishing contribution in April 2024.
As Liverpool’s title bid unravelled at the end of Klopp’s reign, there were murmurings about Salah’s output. He had returned from Afcon duty the previous January a shadow of himself, and was even involved in a high-profile spat with Klopp on the touchline at West Ham United.
Many Liverpool supporters wondered if, given Salah’s age, it would have been wiser to cash in and sell him to Saudi Arabia. Within a year, Salah was inspiring Liverpool to another Premier League title and winning both Player of the Year awards.
Salah has similar traits to Cristiano Ronaldo with regards to his mental toughness and determination to extend his career at the top and keep chasing records and trophies. The more he is doubted, the more he responds where it matters on the pitch.
If there is one club which will fear negative appraisals of Salah’s form more than any, it is this weekend’s visitors to Anfield, Manchester United.
Salah’s record versus United is extraordinary. He has scored 16 times against Liverpool’s historic rivals. No team has suffered more against him. His all-time tally in this fixture is seven more than any player for either club, enhancing his reputation as the man for the big occasion.
There are mitigating factors which support the idea that Salah’s early-season difficulties are temporary.
First, and most tragically, it is impossible to ignore the emotional scenes at Anfield at full time of Liverpool’s opening Premier League game against Bournemouth, when Salah broke down in front of the Kop as supporters chanted Diogo Jota’s name.
From a purely football perspective, it has also been a period of change. After seven years in partnership with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Salah has played in front of four right-backs already this season; Conor Bradley, Jeremie Frimpong, Dominik Szoboszlai and, briefly, Wataru Endo.
As across the Liverpool line-up, new relationships are forming, and those intuitive understandings must develop. The hope is always this will happen instantly. Realistically, it needs more than 10 games.
There is an additional tactical adjustment impacting Salah. One of the reasons he was so effective last season is because Slot designed the team around a ‘risk and reward’ strategy with his main goalscorer. He encouraged him to stay up the pitch rather than consistently track back, trusting Szoboszlai, Alexander-Arnold or Ibrahima Konaté to cover the right side of Liverpool’s defence when the team was counter-attacked.
The reshaping of the midfield, in addition to the changing personnel at full-back and Konaté’s inconsistent form, has enabled opponents to target Liverpool’s right side more productively.
Chelsea reaped the rewards for that with their late winner at Stamford Bridge two weeks ago. Blaming Salah for not helping his right-back enough is harsh given he is following the same instructions that helped Liverpool win so many games.
The biggest difference for Salah has been in the opposition half, as he missed three chances against Chelsea which would have changed the result.
His goals and assist numbers are why Liverpool had no choice but to agree to another two-year contract with Salah last summer, even though there must have been many internal discussions weighing up the risks of committing so much more to a player who will be 35 at the end of his next deal.
Now we have gone from a world in which the club faced a hammering had they let Salah go, to the first tentative suggestions it might have been unwise to keep him. It is too early in the season for a definitive conclusion, although there are certain trends which need to be reversed immediately.
Traditionally, Salah comes sprinting out of the blocks in August. Not so this season.
The most worrying statistics demonstrate Salah’s difficulties go back to last March. In his last 21 Liverpool appearances, he has only five goals (two of which were penalties). He had struck 32 in his previous 42 games for his club.
In this year’s Premier League, his strike against Bournemouth is his only non-penalty goal so far. That has to change to end the latest chatter about whether his best is behind him.
With respect to all of the great players who have served Klopp and now Slot, when football historians view this period they will see Liverpool as ‘the Salah team’. He has defined it in the way Dalglish did in the late 70s and 80s, John Barnes the late 80s, and Gerrard the 2000s.
Like the legends before him, even a footballer with Salah’s pace cannot outrun father time. It is a question of when, not if, the greatest realise they have been caught.
Slot and the rest of Liverpool’s football department know that, which is why their summer business carried all the hallmarks of succession planning, despite Salah’s new deal.
When all sides committed to that contract, there must have been an understanding that the days when Salah is a guaranteed starter in every game would come to an end over the course of the next two years.
Slot left Salah out of the first tricky Champions League away game in Galatasaray. With Salah unavailable when he joins Egypt in mid-season, Liverpool must get used to being without him.
Salah must start to accept he may not start every week upon his return, which is never easy for such a high-profile, world-class player.
Sooner or later Liverpool must move beyond Salah and enter the era of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz. Just don’t bet against Salah making that later rather than sooner.