Mohamed Salah‘s peripheral role in Liverpool’s new setup has become a cause for concern this season, but Arne Slot has defended his use of the now goal-shy Egyptian.
After a campaign that saw him score 34 goals and assist 23 in 52 games, Salah has so far only scored three and assisted three in 10 appearances this term.
It comes with his average of touches in the opponent’s penalty area dropping significantly: from 9.20 per 90 minutes last season to just 4.94 this term, per FBref.
But Salah also appears less effective in 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 victory over Liverpool.
Asked in his press conference on Friday whether a new shape, built around Florian Wirtz as a No. 10, contributed to Salah’s drop in influence, Slot became defensive.
“What do Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai have to do with Cucurella attacking Mo Salah?” he said, with Wirtz’s role decidedly different to that of Szoboszlai last season.
“I think they’re both attacking midfielders and both are expected to defend, like all our 11 players are expected to defend.
“So yes, in this particular case, I heard the comments of Cucurella. 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 so many times made the difference for us.
“If that then doesn’t happen, you get probably comments like this.
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“It’s always the balance between winger and full-backs that is quite [tough]. I want our full-backs to attack as well, so we have to find the right balance in that.
“We are conceding too many crosses compared to last season and this is something I’m aware of and we have to do better.”
Salah scores more vs. Man United than any other club
Salah will come up against his favourite opponents on Sunday, with his 16 goals vs. Man United the most he has scored against any single club since joining Liverpool.
But Slot dismissed suggestions it was the ideal fixture for his side – and his right winger – to regain their form after a run of three defeats.
“I think it should not matter who we are playing on Sunday,” he insisted.
“If you’ve lost three games in a row and you are in a Liverpool shirt, it doesn’t matter who your opponent is, you have to react.
“If there’s one thing I cannot blame the players for is that they give everything they have every single game.
“They go all in from the first to the last minute. This is what we did in the last three games as well.
“We, in all three games, had to come back from being 1-0 down.
“In two games we managed to do so, but unfortunately lost in the end when we were having chances in both games maybe more than our opponents to win it.
“But if you’ve lost three in a row, it doesn’t matter if Man United is coming or Brentford next week. There should always be a reaction.
“Not only from Mo, from all the players.”
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