Mohamed Salah has seemed somewhat diminished this season, admitting difficulty both coping with the loss of Diogo Jota and the integration of new players — and it’s also worth saying that exits to other
players who moved to other sides would have had an impact as well.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Brentford, Arne Slot emphasized that the Egyptian is not alone in finding things challenging to adapt to, particularly after a run of bad results:
“I think it’s been a difficult moment for all of us. No-one is used to losing, for all the players that have played here for so many years and even for the new players as well because we started the season with seven wins. If you start to lose once, that’s a difficult moment for everyone, let alone if you [lose] twice, three or four times.”
Speaking specifically about Salah’s missed chances, the Liverpool boss was quick to underscore Salah’s humanity — even if often his form has made him seem super human:
“I don’t know if it’s sharpness or not [that has caused Salah to miss chances]. It’s so difficult for me to say why this is. I could come up with a few reasons but I am not sure they are the reasons. In general in football, players miss chances and Mo is a human being as well. We’re not used to him missing chances, let alone a few games in a row, but these things happen. What could have to do with it – and I have no clue if it does – but I could come up with maybe it is easier to maybe finish a chance if you are 3-1 up than if you are 1-0 down, but maybe that is completely not true for him, but could, could, could.
“The main thing is that Mo has always scored goals for our club. The last thing I worry about is Mo starting to score goals again because that’s what he’s done his whole life and what I expect him to do in the upcoming weeks and months for our club as well.”
Slot was also asked if the personnel shifts might contribute to the winger’s form, and the Reds’ head coach acknowledged that the transition is certainly a challenge:
“It could. Not particularly maybe the right full-back, but it could [be], by the way, because maybe his whole Liverpool career he played with Trent [Alexander-Arnold], so it could. But, like you just said, he has been in promising positions often enough for him to score goals. Maybe with Trent even more, I don’t know, but I think in general for every player if you have quite a few changes in your squad during the summer then everyone needs to find new connections again and that normally goes like this a little bit.
“Mo is not an exception to this because he’s also a human being like all the others, so it might have something to do with that, but yes, like you’ve seen now again, in an ideal world you play every single time with the same team [but] that’s not realistic for a team that plays every three days. Even if you would want to, it wasn’t possible because Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out with injuries a few times, Conor Bradley has been in and out with injuries, let alone [Alexis] Mac Allister missed out on pre-season and Alex [Isak]. So, I think it might be one of the reasons why we haven’t been as consistent as we were last season.”
It seems like we all agree that Mohamed Salah, a man who has given the Reds so much, deserves the fans’ full-throated support as he adapts to these challenges.
