Mo Salah misconception is brutally unfair on legendary Liverpool star | OneFootball

There's a misconception about Mo Salah this season. And it's brutally unfair on the legend.

Mo Salah is not having a good season. We can get that out of the way early.

The Egyptian broke records galore last season as he won the PFA Player of the Year, the Premier League Golden Boot and the Premier League Playmaker award. It was a sensational campaign - unlike anything we've ever seen, really, even in a title-winning season.

That earned him an enormous two-year contract extension as Liverpool committed to their legendary no.11. Unfortunately, that deal hasn't worked out as Salah's output has dropped enormously this season.

He's got just four goals and six assists this season. Those numbers almost certainly comndemn him to his lowest numbers of his Liverpool career. Maybe even since his Chelsea days.

But there are some misconceptions about Salah and his season. They're very unfair, too.

Mo Salah's season so far

Salah has not scored anywhere near as many goals this season. That's led to analysis such as this from the Telegraph:

"Last season, Salah outperformed his expected goals [xG] by 3.6. This season he is underperforming his xG by 2. Other metrics related to creative moments on the pitch are also down, albeit by a smaller amount. He is still involved in games at the same level – he is simply not delivering the same outcomes at the scale he once did."

This is an unbelievably unfair way of judging Salah's efforts this season. The data is correct - no denial there - but the idea that he's involved in games 'at the same level' is plainly wrong.

Salah's xG last season was 27.71 (per Understat) and that worked out at around 0.74 per 90 minutes. It was the fourth-highest of his Liverpool career.

This season? 6.51 so far, working out to be 0.38 per 90 minutes. This is considerably lower than his previous lowest as a Red (0.59 in 2020/21).

Salah simply is not as involved. He's not a player who creates his own chances out of nothing consistently and instead gets on the end of moves.

Yes, of course, Salah has a fantastic collection of incredible goals he made happen out of nothing. His bread and butter, though? It's being in the right place to receive the ball.

That has not been happening this season. Now, maybe it's because he doesn't have the ability to get into those positions. It feels unlikely, though, given the overall play of the entire squad has dropped.

Salah is far from the only player to see a massive drop in form this season. The squad isn't functioning properly and it's meant far less creation for the Egyptian.

He literally has not been as involved as a goalscoring force. His finishing compared to xG has been a negative, certainly, but the lack of creation for him plays a much bigger role in his overall drop-off.

To miss that point is doing the Liverpool legend an enormous disservice.