Mohamed Salah has now gone four games without a goal – his longest drought since February 2023 – but Arne Slot is confident his No. 11 “will show up again.”
Having blanked against Paris Saint-Germain, Newcastle, Everton and Fulham, Salah is now on his longest run of consecutive games without a goal in over two years.
It comes towards the end of an outstanding season for the Egyptian, who has scored 32 and assisted 22 in 45 appearances as Liverpool look to end Slot’s first campaign with a title.
But with his contract running out and no guarantee he will be at Anfield beyond the summer, it is a frustrating time for the 32-year-old to misfire.
Despite his current malaise, Slot has no worries when it comes to Salah, instead insisting that it should put his overall achievements into context.
“Maybe he should see it as a compliment, because his numbers were not normal,” Slot said in his interview with BBC Sport after Liverpool lost 3-2 at Fulham.
“Now he hasn’t scored for four, but the good thing about Mo is sometimes he doesn’t play a good game and he can still score a goal.
“I don’t think he’s now in a place where he cannot score goals anymore. He knows what a kind of player he is.
“We have to bring him as much as we can into those positions. Today he had a big chance, don’t know who crossed it, but he had [it on] his right foot.
“But Mo will show up again, I don’t worry about that at all.”
Slot is not wrong in his assessment, not least as a mere four-game barren run is Salah’s worst in two years, but in the wider landscape it could be more of a concern.
Liverpool are undoubtedly reliant on Salah as their leading provider of both goals and assists and when he is not on form they invariably struggle.
With the chance that he departs Merseyside at the end of the season it points to the scale of any potential rebuild Liverpool are facing even without the obvious issues elsewhere within the squad.
Even if Salah stays there must be more of an emphasis on the rest of the team to score and assist as, in Slot’s words, his level of output this season is “not normal.”
Fortunately, the Egypt captain has only gone five games without a goal in the last three seasons – that being his previous longest drought between January and February 2023.
Fan Comments