What has gone wrong for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool and how Arne Slot can now fix it
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Mohamed Salah is facing questions over his starting role at Liverpool and there are several reasons why this season has become more difficultIan Doyle has covered Liverpool for more than 20 years, following them across Europe in multiple Champions League and Europa League finals and as far afield as Thailand, Singapore, the United States, Hong Kong and Qatar, and has reported on the Reds winning every major honour. Both Salah's average number of shots and touches in the opposing penalty area have halved in the Premier League so far this campaign, while there has been a drop in the amount of times he brings the ball forward and the chances he creates.Salah is winning even fewer free-kicks per game than last season - fewer than one a game - although the lack of protection from referees has long been a problem with which the Liverpool man has had to contend.And it's not as if Liverpool aren't finding Salah sufficiently, the player having received significantly more progressive passes than anyone else in the Premier League this season.
In his last 24 games in all competitions for Liverpool, Salah has scored just four non-penalty goals from 52 shots.Reasons aren't difficult to find, chief among them the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold. Before the start of the campaign, Salah played 316 of his 401 games for Liverpool with Alexander-Arnold behind him down the right flank, the creative fulcrum of a team first under Jurgen Klopp and then Arne Slot that claimed regular major honours.This season Salah has already seen Conor Bradley, Jeremie Frimpong, Dominik Szoboszlai, Wataru Endo and Joe Gomez all feature at right-back, Slot still searching for a regular in the position.The attack has also been overhauled at great cost, with strikers £125million Alexander Isak and £79m Hugo Ekitike joined by £116m attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz.It means the usual patterns and rhythms aren't there in Liverpool's game just yet as they search for a new offensive structure.
And that has allowed opposing defences to focus even greater on negating Salah's threat - too often he is finding himself up against two or three defenders with no obvious outlet readily available.The new influx of players are Liverpool's future with Salah now in the tricky process of starting to hand over the baton and pass on his experience while attempting to forge on-field relationships with those who will eventually replace his goal threat. Despite his meticulous training programme, no amount of preparation can avoid the onset of time, and with Salah now 33 his pace, strength and sharpness are inevitably on the wane.Managed decline seems too harsh a phrase, but into the final two years of a decade of stellar service for Liverpool, the onus now is on both the player and Reds head coach Slot to find a way of continuing to extract his best while accepting there will be a gradual drop in some areas.The ongoing international break in which the Egyptian can secure his country's qualification for next summer's World Cup finals - and how he wants to atone for what happened in the 2018 tournament - could provide a much-needed confidence boost.After all, Salah's constant evolution during his Anfield career suggests he is far from finished.