Five key ‘reasons’ for Salah woes revealed as Slot, Owen agree with three stars to blame

Arne Slot and Michael Owen are in agreement on Mohamed Salah as there are five “reasons” behind his recent struggles at Liverpool…

Salah has had quite the ride over the past couple of seasons…

The 33-year-old butted heads with Jurgen Klopp en route to the former Liverpool manager’s exit, while he was also criticised over his disappointing form in 2023/24.

With Salah entering the final year of his contract at the start of the 2024/25 campaign and linked with a move to the Saudi Pro League, it felt like he was on borrowed time at Anfield.

However, Slot’s arrival breathed new life into Salah, with the head coach’s tactical tweaks bringing the best out of the Egypt international as he produced his best individual season to help the Reds win their 20th Premier League title in the Dutchman’s first campaign in charge.

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This season has been another story, though.

From being the Premier League’s best player, Salah has been one of this term’s biggest disappointments as he has been wasteful in attack and is often on the periphery.

This has led to calls for Slot to drop Salah, with the Liverpool head coach claiming the three “reasons” for his difficulties this season are a lack of “sharpness”, the need to “find new connections” and that he is “human”.

“I don’t know if it’s sharpness. It’s so difficult for me to say why this is but I think in general, players miss chances. And Mo is a human being as well,” Slot said during his pre-match press conference on Friday.

“We’re not used to him missing chances let alone a few games in a row, but these things happen.

“The main thing is Mo has always scored his goals for our club. The last thing I worry about is Mo start to score goals again because that’s what he does his whole life and that’s what I expect him to do in the upcoming weeks and months for our club.”

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He added: “Maybe his whole Liverpool player he played with Trent, so it could (be that).

“But he’s been in promising positions often enough to score goals, maybe with Trent even more.

“But in general, if you have quite a few changes in the summer then everyone has to find new connections again. Mo is no exception to this becuase he is a human being like every other player.

“In an ideal world you play every single time with the same team. That’s not realistic for a team that plays every three days.

“But even if we wanted to, it was not possible because Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out with injuries a few times, same with Connor Bradley. So I think this might be one of the reasons why we haven’t been as consistent as last season.”

Pundit Michael Owen agrees with Slot that the personnel is a factor impacting Salah, with him, Conor Bradley and Trent Alexander-Arnold to blame, while his age could also be at play.

“Salah has been scoring goals for years and years. Nobody would be surprised if he scored in his next game and went on a run. If there’s anyone in the Premier League you shouldn’t doubt, it’s him,” Owen said.

“That said, if there’s something more going on, then age could be a factor – he’s 33 now. I retired at that age myself, so you can’t go on forever.

“That’s one possible reason. Another is that there’s no Trent Alexander-Arnold feeding him those balls anymore – the dynamic has changed.”

He added: “Conor Bradley plays differently, he looks to run past Salah rather than serve him. I did some analysis on TV showing that Salah is picking up the ball about 10 per cent deeper on average than last season.

“The tactics haven’t changed, but the personnel have. Or it could just be that the team isn’t firing yet. Every attacking player goes through a spell like this. It’s more likely just a blip, and he’ll bounce back soon, but it could be a bit of all the above.”