Salah form 'last thing' Slot worries about - plus analysis of forward's season

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Salah was Liverpool's top scorer with 29 goals last season and also contributed 18 assists as they cantered to the Premier League title.The 33-year-old has scored just three league goals this term as Liverpool have struggled to reproduce their title-winning form after spending about £415m on attacking talent in the summer.After four successive losses, including Sunday's defeat by Manchester United at Anfield, Slot left Salah on the bench for their 5-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League on Wednesday night."The main thing is that he always has scored goals for Liverpool," Slot replied when asked about Salah's form in a news conference on Friday."The last thing I worry about is Mo scoring goals again. This season he has had just three of both.Last season's Premier League Golden Boot winner is already eight goals behind Manchester City striker Erling Haaland.Compared to his team mates, Cody Gakpo and Ekitike have both scored more, although Salah does lead the way with these two in terms of assists (three) this season.It is not all bad though.

Salah has actually made 19 chances for Liverpool so far, just two down on the 21 he made after 12 games last season. He has also made more open play crosses than last season so far.But why has there been such a dramatic drop off in his number of goals this season?

There were signs of this towards the end of last season, where he only managed three goals in Liverpool's final 11 games, so this is a continuation of that reduced form.There are also clear signs Liverpool are struggling to get him on the ball as much, with his average touches per game significantly lower than it has been throughout his career at the club.This season he is averaging just 6.2 touches in the opposition box, compared to last season's 9.6, and he is averaging just 1.6 dribbles, less than half of last campaign's number.Whether this is because full-backs are staying closer to him, difficulties in adapting to the new signings, or just time catching up with him, Salah's average of just 0.3 dribbles completed per game is evidence of his struggles.While 12 games is a reasonably small sample size, Salah has also never averaged fewer shots or had a lower xG than he has so far this campaign.Liverpool's new signings and pattern of play could also be playing a part. And so could one exit.Salah and Alexander-Arnold formed a fruitful partnership down Liverpool's right and the latter's departure to Real Madrid has likely affected the Egypt forward.Alexander-Arnold played 147 line-breaking passes to Salah in the Premier League last season, at least 39 more than any other combination in the competition.Statistics from data analyst Opta show in the 33 league games in which both featured, Salah scored 27 goals, averaging 3.5 shots per game, has a 0.48 non-penalty xG and 10.5 touches in the opposition's box.In the 12 games in which Alexander-Arnold didn't play across last season and this, Salah has scored just four goals, two of which were penalties.