Mohamed Salah: The reason behind Liverpool star’s shocking decline in 2025/26 | OneFootball

Only a handful of players in modern football can claim to have impacted an era at a club the way Mohamed Salah has at Liverpool.

For nearly a decade, Salah has established himself as a Liverpool icon and also one of the greatest Premier League players of all time.

But for the first time in his career at Merseyside, the Egyptian is in danger of ending the season without reaching double digits in terms of goals scored.

Across 431 appearances for Liverpool, Salah has notched an extraordinary 252 goals and 121 assists. 

Those numbers place him third on Liverpool’s all-time scoring list and give him the record for the most goal contributions for a single club in Premier League history. 

But even the most reliable stars can experience difficult moments, so LiverpoolFCNews takes a look at the potential reasons behind Salah’s difficult 2025/26 campaign.

Did Slot know something we didn’t?

Salah scored only his fifth Premier League goal of the season in 21 games during Liverpool’s shocking 2-1 defeat against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux Stadium.

Before his 83rd-minute equaliser, the Egyptian had gone 10 Premier League games without scoring.

Interestingly, Liverpool manager Arne Slot had predicted Salah’s decline since last season, when the Egyptian fired the Reds to their second Premier League title with 29 league goals.

That performance won Salah the Golden Boot and a two-year contract extension. 

However, Slot seemed to be certain that the Liverpool talisman wouldn’t reach those numbers again during the remainder of his contract.

When asked about the standards Salah had set, Slot said: “Yeah and standards he’s probably not going to live up to in the upcoming two seasons. I hope he can, but it’s not even necessary.”

While Slot turned out to be right about Salah’s eventual drop off, even he probably didn’t expect such a steep decline in 2025/26.

Salah’s marginal physical decline doesn’t explain shocking drop off

One of the most common explanations for Salah’s drop off is a physical decline.

There were already questions about how much longer Salah can perform at the highest level. But last season’s heroics silenced doubters and convinced Liverpool to give their club legend another two years.

The likes of Jamie Carragher have claimed that age may finally be slowing the Egyptian forward down. 

But in fairness to Salah, the numbers suggest that his physical decline has been greatly exaggerated.

Last season, Salah averaged around 15.1 sprints per game in the league. This season, before leaving to play in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), that figure was only slightly lower at 14.8. 

That difference is hardly enough to suggest a major drop off in Salah’s energy or effort. 

Salah also covered an average of 9.3 kilometres per game in the league last term. This season, his average had actually increased to roughly 9.7 kilometres before the AFCON break. 

If anything, those numbers suggest he is working just as hard — if not harder — than he did during Liverpool’s title-winning campaign.

How Arne Slot’s tactical tweak has affected Salah’s output

Having dispelled the notion that Salah isn’t working hard, Slot’s tactical tweaks could be the more plausible explanation for his drop off.

Slot proved last season that he could still get the best out of Salah. The Egyptian’s 47 goal contribution means he was involved in 54.7% of the club’s 86 Premier League goals en route to lifting the title.

But there has been a significant overhaul at Liverpool since. 

The arrivals of Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, and Alexander Isak suggest Liverpool are gradually preparing for a future where Salah is no longer the central figure in the attack. 

Investing in younger talent is a sensible long-term strategy, but it has also affected how often Salah finds himself in dangerous scoring positions.

The reality of the situation is arguably the main reason for Salah’s drastic decline in output, and the numbers hammer home that point.

Salah is averaging only about 7.5 touches in the box per game this season, a 25% drop compared with the previous three years, when he averaged around 10.

Additionally, only 15% of Salah’s overall touches have come in the box, compared to 21% last year.

It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots from here, considering fewer touches in the opposition box naturally lead to fewer chances and fewer goals.