Arne Slot has steadied the ship over the past few months at Liverpool, but fans are still concerned that the reigning Premier League champions are going to fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
That would be a disaster. Not only would missing out on Europe’s elite competition have financial ramifications, but the Reds would also have a squad of dissatisfied superstars and less pulling power ahead of a crucial summer transfer window.
However, these players need to check themselves after such dismal form throughout the campaign. Several of Anfield’s biggest stars have fallen off big time.
Liverpool stars have fallen off
A lot has gone wrong at Liverpool this season. It’s hard to pin down the regression to any one point, but the left channel has been a weak spot, for sure.
After the summer sale of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich for £65.5m, Cody Gakpo has lacked dynamism in a role of newfound importance. Partner that with the decline of 31-year-old Andy Robertson and Milos Kerkez’s initial teething problems and it’s not difficult to identify why Slot’s side have been so poor.
This happened before under Jurgen Klopp. Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were among the midfielders to have exhausted their batteries in such a high-octane system.
In fact, Alexis Mac Allister has been said by one prominent fan voice to “look like Fabinho in his final season“, his physicality having deserted him.
But Mac Allister is still only 27 and will surely bounce back.
The same can’t be said for everyone, with a veteran member of the Merseyside outfit actually looking like Fabinho 2.0.
Liverpool’s new version of Fabinho
Fabinho was the glue at the heart of Liverpool’s title-winning system for so long. The Brazilian was one of the best.
They may be nothing alike from a stylistic standpoint, but Mohamed Salah is turning into Slot’s own Fabinho-shaped problem, having fallen off a proverbial cliff this season in terms of his fluency and sharpness in the final third. His inflammatory outburst in December, before AFCON sparked concerns that Salah was headed for a bitter exit, and while that’s been resolved, it feels like he’s entered the final stretch.
Salah is, of course, one of the greatest forwards in Premier League history. Since joining Liverpool from Roma for £34m in 2017, he has won the full gamut, playing 429 matches, scoring 252 goals and supplying 121 assists.
But we cannot ignore the slump that he hasn’t been able to shake off this season. Salah is often adrift from the flow of a match, and his uncharacteristic profligacy in front of goal has hindered him further.
While the 33-year-old still has over a year on his current contract, there’s no question that Liverpool cannot afford to maintain his presence as a talismanic presence up top when he’s not delivering the goods. With the Saudi Pro League laying in wait, perhaps FSG would be wise to cash in while they still can and redirect the funds toward a successor.
Fabinho, after all, joined Al-Ittihad for £40m in 2023, with that sale turned toward a sweeping summer of change that has set this exciting new era.
|
Mo Salah in the Premier League for Slot |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Stats (* per 90) |
24/25 |
25/26 |
|
Matches (starts) |
38 (38) |
19 (17) |
|
Goals + Assists |
29 + 18 |
4 + 6 |
|
Touches* |
49.1 |
48.4 |
|
Shots (on target)* |
3.4 (1.6) |
2.6 (0.7) |
|
Big chances missed |
24 |
9 |
|
Accurate passes* |
22.4 (74%) |
21.9 (76%) |
|
Big chances created |
27 |
10 |
|
Key passes* |
2.4 |
2.2 |
|
Succ. dribbles* |
1.5 (45%) |
0.6 (25%) |
|
Ball recoveries* |
2.7 |
2.8 |
|
Tackles + interceptions* |
0.8 |
0.5 |
|
Duels won* |
3.3 (41%) |
2.1 (29%) |
Since last season’s blistering success, the difference is night and day. Salah is ageing and carried the weight of the club on his shoulders last season, but he shouldn’t have declined so sharply.
As the end draws near for Salah and his superstar status in the English game, questions must be turned toward FSG’s decision to hand him a record-breaking contract extension.
Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing, but Salah’s underlying data had dropped last season too, countered by staggering sharpness in the danger area.
In this, Salah might just be turning into Anfield’s new version of Fabinho, who was one of the best in the business back in his day but fell by the wayside across that final Klopp-led year on Merseyside, sapped of his former strength.
Slot can finally drop Gakpo by unleashing big-money Liverpool star in new role
Liverpool have become tactically sterile under Arne Slot’s management this season.
