Everything seemed perfect in April. The Premier League title was in his pocket, Mo Salah, the Premier League’s top scorer, opted for an extension and agreed with the club that the way forward is at Anfield. What could possibly go wrong.? Eight months later, most things have actually gone wrong. A former Liverpool striker believes he has the explanation for the big fall of Mo Salah – and thus also Liverpool.
Dean Saunders wore the Liverpool shirt from 1992-95 and has followed the Reds closely ever since. The former striker believes the explanation for Salah’s going from season as top scorer, to 4 goals in 14 Premier League games and bench wear, is simple. It is about a partner and playmaker who this summer chose to exit Anfield in favor of Real Madrid.
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-Who would have thought that it could go so wrong? But I thought at the time that he was going to miss Trent (Alexander-Arnold) because Trent’s camouflaged passes got him in. The full-backs knew where Salah was, but Trent didn’t even have to look at him sometimes and find him. Trent played inside to him, or passed the ball outside, and said, “If you need me, if you need to give it back to me, when you give it back, I have the magic wand to find anybody in the box.” He was brilliant at it. The opponents made sure they got players out against Trent because they knew he could hurt them, and that left Mo Salah one-on-one with the full-back. Now they leave the Liverpool full-back on the ball, because they can’t hurt them like Trent did,” Saunders told Goal.
The former Liverpool player adds that the exit of other players has also helped create different working conditions for Salah in front of the opponents’ goal.
“Salah has lost [Diogo] Jota and [Darwin] Nunez and [Luis] Diaz. Diaz used to go outside the back and cross. [Cody] Gakpo never goes outside the full-back. He’s lost Andy Robertson, who used to join Diaz and overlap and get to the byline, and Mo Salah comes in from the other wing,” Sanduers said.
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This was the explanation for Salah’s big drop in goal involvement. Saunders adds that Mo Salah will have to figure it out for himself, but also revel in the fact that there have been some games on the bench.
After 16 PL games, Erling Haaland comes off with 17 goals as the top scorer, last season it was Salah who was unstoppable. According to Saunders, the explanation is “simple” as to why the Egyptian is not accelerating to the top scorers list like last season.
