Andy Jones, Liverpool writer for The Athletic: Salah having the season of his life | OneFootball

Brentford must keep a close eye on in-form forward Mohamed Salah when Liverpool visit Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday, says The Athletic’s Andy Jones.

Salah has been instrumental to the Reds' success this season, scoring 18 goals and assisting 13 for the Premier League leaders.

Liverpool are comfortably top of the Premier League. How would you summarise their season so far?

It has probably gone as well as could have been hoped for really. Given the managerial change in the summer, with Arne Slot replacing Jürgen Klopp, no one quite knew what was going to happen.

Liverpool had done relatively well last season and sustained a title challenge before they fell away towards the end.

With a new manager, new information and a system shift, it was going to be interesting to see how it was going to go, but I do not think anyone expected Liverpool to find themselves in this position.

There are other sides who were expected to challenge the league and maybe have not performed as well as they have in previous seasons, which has helped, but equally, Liverpool's record speaks for itself and they have only had that one defeat in the Premier League.

Slot has seamlessly fitted in and he is getting excellent performances from a number of the players, and he has also seemingly improved players who maybe did not have the season that they were hoping for last season.

He has got a structure and style that has worked and the players have responded. The position in the league is deserved, but also not the one that was expected in August.

Arne Slot’s side lost the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Tottenham but, other than that, they are going well in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup. Do you think a treble or quadruple is on their radar at this point?

I suppose it will be there in the background and Liverpool have found themselves in this type of position a couple of times in recent seasons.

There has been that little change to the squad from last season to this season, so they know about the pressures of being in all four competitions in the second half of the season though, in the Champions League this season, there is a level up in terms of difficulty.

The players might have learned from past experiences to maybe not think about it or certainly voice the idea. In the past, there have been a few social media posts where it indicates when they have won the Carabao Cup and hopefully they will go and win more trophies, but that has not always worked out.

The focus is winning the Premier League, and the Champions League as well. They are the two biggest prizes on offer, but they have put themselves in a position where, if they get a good result against Tottenham in the second leg, they can be in a final.

So it is in the background, but I think the focus is just on making sure that they are in the position to win as many trophies as they can by taking it one game at a time, as cliché as that is, and their previous experiences of putting the idea out there about the potential of a quadruple is one that they are maybe not going to do this this time.

Equally, they have shown so far this season they have the credentials to potentially pull something like that off.

Do you expect any sort of January business and, if so, which areas will they be targeting?

I think it is unlikely. From a Liverpool standpoint, it seems they will be aware of the market and if there is anything that jumps out at them or anyone becomes available that fits into the price range and the type of players they are looking for then they may make the move.

They have done in recent seasons with Cody Gakpo and Luis Díaz where they have fast-forwarded their summer plans because of the availability of players and to make sure other teams do not necessarily get to sign those players ahead of them.

Slot has spoken since pre-season about how pleased he is with the squad he has got at his disposal. That was demonstrated by the fact they did very little business in the summer as well.

When a new manager comes in, you would expect maybe four or five new faces and a bit more of a squad turnover because of him wanting to bring in his own types of players that fitted his system, but one of the reasons Liverpool appointed him was they felt the current squad was suited to the way Slot wanted to play.

The only signing was Federico Chiesa, who has struggled with fitness and has not really featured anyway. Slot always wants strong options in each position. You would probably say the area where they are the weakest is in the left-back area.

Kostas Tsimikas has been injured, but played generally well before he got injured, and Andy Robertson has maybe not lived up to his high standards so far this season. It is more likely to be in the summer where they strengthen there.

They tried to sign Martín Zubimendi in the summer - he decided to stay in Spain - but the fact that they were looking in midfield definitely made you think they needed an extra body, but the form and position change of Ryan Gravenberch to a no.6 has been a massive bonus and that necessity has decreased a little bit because of his form and his ability to stay fit as well.

It is unlikely Liverpool will do business, but it is always a never say never because, if someone becomes available that suits them and fits into the plan – both short term and long term - then it is something they will look to move on.

There is surely only one answer to this question… which player should Brentford fans keep an eye on?

I do not think you will be surprised that I will say Mo Salah! He is having the season of his life and just seems to get better and better and adapt his game in different ways.

The assist numbers have been going up and he just keeps setting record after record including having become the first player in the Premier League to both score and assist in eight games in a season - and he has only just played half a season.

He really benefits from the Slot system, which prioritises putting him in the right areas to be in the position to score or be the one to provide the assist. When he is getting these chances, he is so often putting them away.

He has always been a top finisher, but it seems like he is going up another level this year. You look at 32/33 as being the age that players might begin to start winding down or the powers might be wavering, but Salah seems to have found different ways to get even better.

He does not necessarily have the skillset he did in his first few years at Liverpool, but it shows how good of a player he is that he has been able to adapt and change his game.

For example, the pace is not quite what it once was, but he has made up for that with his intelligence, his decision-making, his ability to interpret the game and see passes and the movement to put himself in the position to score goals.

What should Brentford expect from Liverpool in terms of shape and style?

Slot has stuck with the 4-2-3-1 system pretty much all season. They will have a double pivot, likely to be Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, if all fit and well, and a no.10, with Slot shuffling between Curtis Jones and Dominik Szoboszlai.

The latter has been ill recently so there is a likely chance he might get a few more games because of the workload that Jones has had. Then the front three will be interesting because he has got all six options available at the moment, which has not been the case all the way through.

One of the things has come out of him not having Chiesa and Diogo Jota has been Díaz moving to the no.9 role again.

Gakpo played predominantly as no.9 for Klopp, but Slot has moved him back to his more natural left wing position and he has flourished there and that has left him with Díaz, who was also playing very well in that left wing role at the start of the season.

It is a very fluid system. They build up from the back, play through the thirds and Gravenberch and Mac Allister are really important. They will want to dominate possession and try to control the game, limiting Brentford to as few chances as possible.

What's your score prediction?

Liverpool are not playing as well as they have been and I think my prediction will probably change depending on the Nottingham Forest result, but I think it'll be a tight one. I will say Liverpool to win 2-1, but it will be one of those games that is still alive in the last minute.