Has Arne Slot just found a fix for Mohamed Salah and Liverpool’s biggest problem? | OneFootball

It is less than four months since Mohamed Salah compared a status as a substitute to being thrown under the bus. Now he was in effect substituting himself, the footballer who invariably wants to play 90 minutes curtailing his contribution after 73. He “felt something”, Arne Slot reported vaguely, though he did not sound overly concerned.

Even without finishing Liverpool’s rout of Galatasaray, Salah looked far from finished; in itself, a contrast from some of his displays this season. His statistics were season highs: seven shots, six on target. He had not enjoyed as many attempts in a match for almost a year, since a trip to Ruud van Nistelrooy’s Leicester. He had not had as many on target for almost four years, since the 2022 Champions League final, when he encountered Thibaut Courtois’ heroic display of resistance.

Perhaps there will be a fourth Champions League final for Salah yet. Or maybe it was a night when he briefly reverted to his old self, aided by Galatasaray’s haplessness. And one of those shots on target was a penalty, which Salah missed. Nevertheless, the 33-year-old produced the right response.

“He played a good performance in the first half but missed a penalty unfortunately, which is part of the game and some people might judge him differently,” said his captain, Virgil van Dijk. “But second half he kept his calm, [got an] an assist and a goal.” It was the third time this season that Salah had done the double of a goal and an assist in the same match. He was provider when he selflessly squared the ball for Hugo Ekitike to score; there was almost a role reversal when the Frenchman cut the ball back and the Egyptian hit the bar.

They were split strikers combining. Slot argued that Liverpool’s high-octane display against the Turkish champions was not about tactics; yet his tactics had changed. Unlike Jurgen Klopp, who would deploy Salah as the lone centre-forward at times, Slot shows a reluctance to do so. But he was in a front two with Ekitike; moving Salah infield felt a reason why he was able to have more shots.

It may have been a gameplan for one night, but it borrowed from others. The Galatasaray manager Okan Buruk described Liverpool’s formation as 4-1-3-2; perhaps though, Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai were more advanced than Alexis Mac Allister, also in pockets infield to allow flying full-backs to go past them.

Slot noted he had played with two strikers occasionally this season: modesty prevented him from explicitly saying they brought two of Liverpool’s best results of the campaign, albeit in wildly contrasting fashion. They thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 and beat Inter Milan 1-0; Salah actually started neither game and was banished from the trip to Italy for his outburst at Leeds.

In San Siro, Slot had a narrow diamond of four central midfielders. He was more expansive in Germany, with Wirtz and Cody Gakpo on the flanks. Neither really feels his ideal formation. “So I always have it 4-3-3 with real wingers,” Slot said in January, a Dutchman stating a preference for the classic Dutch formation.

But Liverpool have had a winger problem this season; they have never properly replaced Luis Diaz, only Rio Ngumoha seems capable of beating a man and, to different degrees, Gakpo and Salah have disappointed.

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Salah could be the short-term beneficiary of a switch to 4-4-2, partnering the impressive Ekitike (REUTERS)

Perhaps this variant of 4-4-2 could revitalise the Egyptian, giving him a roving role nearer goal; though the sight of him going off may have been why Slot noted he kept having to alter formations because players got injured. Alexander Isak went off in Frankfurt. And if the short-term beneficiary of Slot’s 4-4-2 could be Salah, perhaps the long-term one will be Isak.

The unanswered question of how the Swede and Ekitike play together has looked unanswerable at times; neither really wants to be on the left touchline. And if each would rather be the left of two strikers, whereas Salah is happier as the right, it could be a solution of sorts, as well as a way of getting Wirtz and Szoboszlai into the final third.

Maybe the quietly remarkable element for now is how much Salah has been in the team, starting 13 of 14 games since the Africa Cup of Nations; perhaps more than he merited. His goal on Wednesday was just his fifth in 20 matches, and two of the others were against Wolves.

But Slot – himself thrown under the bus by Salah in his Elland Road outburst – deserves credit for the understated way in which he has handled the thorny issue of a declining and outspoken superstar. It may be an uneasy truce, but Slot has not made it look that way.

His answer was usually to pick Salah on the right. But now his most dominant display of the campaign has come in a forward pair. And the intrigue if the strategy will work again is partly because it could give a clue as to how Isak and Ekitike could combine.