LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: Mohamed Salah of Liverpool looks on during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD5 match between Liverpool FC and PSV Eindhoven at Anfield on November 26, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington/Copa/Getty Images)
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Mohamed Salah is a Liverpool icon. Nothing will ever change that. The Egyptian is the greatest player in the club’s modern history and last season was a career high for him, scoring 29 goals in 38 games as Liverpool won the Premier League title for only the second time in its history.
This season, however, has been a completely different story. Salah has been a shadow of his usual self. He has still managed to score four goals in 12 Premier League appearances, but the standard of his overall performances have been far lower than at any other point of his Liverpool career.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 26: Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, reacts during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD5 match between Liverpool FC and PSV Eindhoven at Anfield on November 26, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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It was only seven months ago that Salah signed a new contract to keep him at Anfield for a further two years. There had been intense speculation around the winger’s future. A move to the Saudi Pro League was mooted, but Salah decided to remain on Merseyside. Now, that looks to have been a bad decision for all involved.
Liverpool’s slide shows no sign of stopping. Wednesday’s 4-1 home defeat to PSV came just a few days after an equally shocking 3-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest. Liverpool is now slumped in the bottom half of the Premier League table and has lost nine of its last 12 games in all competitions.
Arne Slot says his players “need to face where we’re at and fight really hard,” but could Liverpool’s situation be improved by dropping Salah from the starting lineup? It wouldn’t solve all the team’s problems, but it could help. Slot is surely considering this as an immediate course of action.
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, GERMANY – OCTOBER 22 Wataru Endo of Liverpool and Mohamed Salah of Liverpool look on from the bench prior to the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD3 match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Liverpool FC at Frankfurt Stadion on October 22, 2025 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. (Photo by Rene Nijhuis/MB Media/Getty Images)
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It’s worth noting that Liverpool’s best performance of the season so far came in a game Salah sat out. The Reds were dominant as they beat Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 in the Champions League, when Slot remoulded his side into a new formation with his Egyptian winger on the bench.
In Frankfurt, Slot set up his team in a 3-5-2 shape. In this formation, he was able to provide more protection at the back with an extra defender on the field, find width through wing backs and also deploy Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak as a front two with Florian Wirtz utilised in a free role.
Salah will depart for the Africa Cup of Nations next week and it will be fascinating to observe if there is any uptick in Liverpool’s fortunes when he’s gone. Desperate times call for desperate measures and dropping last season’s top scorer might be one of them for an increasingly under pressure Slot.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/grahamruthven/2025/11/27/is-mohamed-salah-part-of-the-problem-for-liverpool/
