Mohamed Salah’s peripheral role in Liverpool’s new set-up has become a cause for concern this season, but Arne Slot has defended his use of the now goal-shy Egyptian.
After a season in which he scored 34 goals and provided 23 assists in 52 games, Salah has scored just three times and provided three assists in ten appearances so far this season.
It comes as his average number of touches in the opponent’s penalty area drops significantly, from 9.20 per 90 minutes last season to just 4.94 this season, per season. FBref.
But Salah also appears less effective at creating chances, currently averaging 1.69 key passes per 90, compared to 2.23 last season, while Marc Cucurella explained how Chelsea targeted his tendency to stay high after their 2-1 win over Liverpool.
When Slot was asked at his press conference on Friday whether a new shape built around Florian Wirtz as a number 10 was contributing to Salah’s declining influence, he responded defensively.
“What do Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai have to do with Cucurella’s attack on Mo Salah?” he said, with Wirtz’s role decidedly different from Szoboszlai’s last season.
“I think they are both attacking midfielders and both are expected to defend, as all our eleven players are expected to defend.
“So yes, in this specific case I heard Cucurella’s comments. I also saw how they scored for 2-1.”
“But I could also show you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference for us.
“And if that could have happened, we would have had the conversations like last season where he made the difference for us so often.
“If that doesn’t happen, you’ll probably get comments like this.
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“It’s always the balance between winger and full-back [tough]. I want our full-backs to attack too, so we have to find the right balance.
“We are conceding too many crosses compared to last season and that is something I am aware of and that we need to do better.”
Salah scores vs. Man United more than any other club
Salah will face his favorite opponents on Sunday, with his 16 goals against Man United the most he has scored against any club since joining Liverpool.
But Slot rejected suggestions that this would be the ideal match for his side – and his right winger – to regain their form after a run of three defeats.
“I don’t think it matters who we play on Sunday,” he emphasized.
“When you have lost three games in a row and you are in the Liverpool shirt, it doesn’t matter who your opponent is, you have to react.
“If I can’t fault the players for one thing, it’s that they give everything they have every game.
“They go all-in from the first to the last minute. We have done that in the last three games.”
“We had to come back from a 1-0 deficit in all three games.
“We succeeded in two games, but in the end we unfortunately lost because in both games we perhaps had more chances than our opponents to win.
“But when you’ve lost three times in a row, it doesn’t matter whether Man United comes next week or Brentford. There always has to be a response.”
“Not just from Mo, from all the players.”
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