Mohamed Salah Is A Problem For Liverpool

Since joining from Roma eight years ago, Mohamed Salah has always been central to Liverpool’s fortunes.

There is a valid argument to be made for the Egyptian to be the greatest player in the club’s rich history or at the very least deserving of a spot in the top three.

The Reds’ third-most prolific goalscorer of all times with 250 goals in 417 appearances in all competitions, Salah will go down as a Premier League great. The fact he’s mentioned in the same breath as Steven Gerrard and Sir Kenny Dalglish speaks volume of his status at Anfield.

But this season he has developed into a major issue for Liverpool and for Arne Slot.

To suggest Salah was a peripheral figure in his team’s 3-0 thrashing against Manchester City on Sunday would be a gracious understatement.

He was marked out of the game by Nico O’Reilly, a talented player but not a left-back by trade, and failed to score or register an assist against City for the first time in five years.

Worse still, O’Reilly was all too happy to exploit the space behind Salah as Pep Guardiola’s romped to a convincing victory that cemented them as Arsenal’s main challenger for the Premier League title.

Salah’s work rate has long been a topic of debate, with the Egyptian effectively relieved of defensive duties by Slot.

In the Dutchman’s vision, freeing Salah from defensive responsibilities would allow him to stay further up the pitch and lead to a greater offensive output.

“As long as you rest me defensively, then I will provide offensively.” Salah told Sky Sports last April.

It was a formula that paid off spectacularly last season, as Liverpool won the Premier League title at a canter in Slot’s first term in England with Salah plundering in 29 goals and registering 18 assists.

His 47th goal contributions matched the Premier League record for the most goal involvements in one season which was jointly held by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer, while he became only the second player after Thierry Henry to win the Premier League Golden Boot four times.

To nobody’s surprise, Salah also scooped up the Premier League Player of the Season award for a second time and claimed his third PFA Players’ Player of the Year gong.

The Egypt international was, as social media parlance would have it, inevitable.

Have Liverpool got it wrong by keeping Salah?

What was not inevitable, despite his astonishing numbers, was Liverpool’s decision to tie him down to a new two-year deal in April after protracted negotiations.

Salah had suggested last season could be his Anfield farewell with his deal due to expire at the end of the 2024-25 campaign and interest from a number of Saudi Arabian clubs.

But he eventually stayed put, signing a new deal worth in the region of £500,000-a-week ($658,000) when performance-related bonuses are included.

Only months later, Liverpool splurged £446.5m ($598m) on players in the summer, a record figure for a club in a single transfer window.

Neither investment has delivered the expected return.

Alexander Isak, who arrived from Newcastle on transfer deadline day for a British record £125m ($167m), has scored just once in eight appearances in all competitions.

Florian Wirtz, who joined from Bayer Leverkusen for £116.5m ($156m) has been a major disappointment as have new full-bacs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong.

Of the summer arrivals, only Hugo Ekitike, a £79m ($106m) signing from Eintracht Frankfurt, has suggested he may justify his price tag with three goals in 10 Premier League appearances.

Salah, meanwhile, has just four goals in 11 league outings with a single goal in four Champions League appearances.

The summer just gone increasingly looks like a missed opportunity for Liverpool to cash in on Salah, who would have departed a hero after a record-breaking season.

Moving on the Egyptian would have also allowed Slot to decisively turn the page following his summer spending spree.

Instead, the Dutchman has been caught in between two stools, as he tries to fit his expensive new signings around a club icon whose powers may be waning.

It is no coincidence that Salah has looked curiously out of sync this season as Slot has switched back and forth from last season’s 4-3-3 formation to a 4-2-3-1 to accommodate Wirtz.

Defensively, the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold for Real Madrid has left the Reds far too vulnerable with Salah and right-back Conor Bradley seldom on the same wave length.

Can Liverpool follow Sir Alex Ferguson’s blueprint?

Moving on from a club legend is a delicate ask for a manager, but if Liverpool want any advice on the matter they should look no further than 30 miles down the East Lancs Road.

Under Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United were ruthlessly efficient in parting ways with players approaching the winter of their careers, no matter their status within the club.

As United clinched a domestic double in 1994, Ferguson left club captain and Old Trafford cult hero Bryan Robson out of the FA Cup final.

Two years later, a near-identical scenario unfolded, with Steve Bruce dropped for the FA Cup final as United completed a second double in three years.

Robson and Bruce both departed United within months of being left out of the Wembley showpiece, while Paul Ince, Mark Hughes and Andrei Kanchelskis were jettisoned in the summer of 1995 despite playing a pivotal role in United’s Premier League triumphs over the previous two years.

Ferguson famously opted against replacing the trio, instead placing faith in the Class of ‘92, a group of players including David Beckham, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes who had come through the club’s academy.

The gamble paid off immediately, as United romped to the title in 1996 and 1997, before winning three on the bounce between 1999 and 2001.

Four years later, Ferguson cut ties with Roy Keane halfway through the season after the then-United captain called out his teammates’ decline standard in an explosive interview and parted ways with top scorer Ruud Van Nistlerooy at the end of the campaign.

He was proved right once again, with United winning three Premier League titles in a row and the Champions League over the next three seasons.

With Liverpool’s title defence in tatters and his team eight points adrift of Premier League leaders Arsenal, Slot has a difficult decision to make.

Does he persist with Salah out of respect for his status or does he seize the moment to bench the Egyptian and start afresh, by making Wirtz, Ekitike and Isak the focal points of Liverpool’s attack?

Of course, Salah could still render the criticism he has received this season pointless by finding form again, but as Bill Belichick often noted, it’s better to let a player leave a year too early than a year too late.