James Pearce questions Salah’s future – does he still deserve place in Liverpool team? | OneFootball

Liverpool facing major Mo Salah Dilemma

Liverpool’s exhilarating 5-1 Champions League victory over Eintracht Frankfurt was a much needed balm, lifting the heavy cloud of four successive defeats. Yet, as James Pearce meticulously details in his article for The Athletic, the emphatic win only amplified a growing, almost unthinkable, debate: does Mohamed Salah still warrant an automatic starting spot in the best Liverpool XI?

Confidence and Consistency Concerns

The sight of the Egyptian attacker swiftly departing the pitch, with his “body language spoke volumes,” after the final whistle suggests a player grappling with personal frustration. Being omitted from back-to-back Champions League starting line-ups is a new, uncomfortable reality in his illustrious Anfield career, and his brief cameo against Frankfurt only darkened the mood.

Salah’s difficulties were painfully evident, missing “two big chances, as defined by Opta.” His decision-making, once laser-sharp, is now questionable, exemplified by his attempt to score from “the tightest of angles” when he “could and should have squared to present Florian Wirtz with a simple tap-in late on.” With only three goals across all competitions this season, his lowest return at this stage, the legendary forward appears “strangely devoid of confidence.”

Photo: IMAGO

Beyond the Numbers

It’s easy to focus solely on the dip in form, but as the report rightly points out, context is crucial. A summer of seismic changes has reshaped the attacking dynamic. Salah has lost key creators in Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold, meaning that “opportunities have been far harder to come by.” Furthermore, the emotional toll of “Diogo Jota’s death in July” cannot be ignored. The moving scenes of Salah “shed tears in front of the Kop” after the Bournemouth game offer a poignant reminder that compassion and respect are deserved during this tough time.

However, football is also a results business. Manager Arne Slot’s decision to leave out the club’s long-serving match-winner in a game where Liverpool were “in urgent need of a lift” was a significant statement. It signalled a manager “looking elsewhere for solutions” rather than relying on past glories.

Slot’s Solutions

The tactical shift to an effective 4-2-2-2 formation was undeniably successful. The team looked fluent and functional without Salah. Key players stepped up, with Curtis Jones achieving a Champions League record with “122 completed passes” and Dominik Szoboszlai capping a “sensational display” with a goal. Crucially, the form of other attackers has soared. Hugo Ekitike, who “outshone” Alexander Isak, is now “Liverpool’s standout attacking threat,” making an “emphatic case to be given a run of games in the Premier League.”

The debate now shifts to the upcoming fixture at Brentford. Given Salah’s “reluctance to track back,” it is difficult to imagine him occupying the kind of defensive and attacking hybrid role that Wirtz excelled in. With Federico Chiesa also displaying better current form, the question for Slot is stark: does he revert to the old guard, or continue with a system and personnel that delivered the “most fluent performance of the season”?

For a player described as a “competitive beast,” this will be a painful reckoning. He is not being written off, as that would be “ridiculous,” but the balance of power at Anfield has shifted. How the third-highest goal scorer in the club’s history reacts to this test will determine whether this current situation is a temporary setback, or marks a more permanent “changing of the guard at Anfield.”

Our View – Anfield Index Analysis

This report is deeply worrying for any loyal Liverpool fan, even with the fantastic news of the debut title win. The question of Salah’s place in the best XI is genuinely frightening because it suggests the end of an era is here, and it’s happening suddenly. We gave him the massive $\text{\textsterling}400,000$ per week contract, believing he could defy time, but now, a few months later, he’s being benched for the first time in his Champions League career when the team is struggling. If Slot, the manager who just delivered the Premier League title, is looking elsewhere for solutions against Frankfurt, what does that say about Salah’s current value to the team?

Ekitike is rightly highlighted as the new focal point, which means Salah, for all his records and legend status, is now second best. The tactical shift worked brilliantly, but Salah doesn’t fit the Wirtz role; that is a major problem. It feels like the manager is building a new system that bypasses our biggest star, not because he wants to, but because the new system needs to work without the old dynamic. We are told he needs compassion because of grief and respect because of his history, but we need to win! If a player is missing chances and his confidence is gone, the manager has to pick the player in better form, like Chiesa. This could be a very sad, drawn-out goodbye, and it’s unsettling to think about life without the ‘Egyptian King’ as the main man.