Mohamed Salah has had an incredibly impressive season for Liverpool, combining for 54 goals and assists, but how does his first half of the season compare to his second so far?
Liverpool’s No. 11 has been the focal point in attack, contributing 49.5 percent of Liverpool’s goals in all competitions having amassed 32 goals and 22 assists to date.
Arne Slot‘s side have seven games left in the season and Salah has the chance to eclipse his best-ever tally for goal contributions at the club, which stands at 58 from his debut season.
He has now gone four games without a goal – his longest drought since February 2023 – and six games without an assist.
There is no need for alarm bells to ring as we know the disruption at right-back has not helped Salah, nor the malaise hanging over the team in general.
But it got us thinking about whether there are notable differences between his first half of the season and the second.
A drop off this season?
If we use the Premier League halfway point as a guide for Liverpool’s midpoint of the campaign, it runs up to and includes the visit of Man United on January 5.
From the season opener to the draw against Ruben Amorim’s side, Salah scored 21 goals and provided 17 assists across 27 appearances.
In his 18 appearances since – he was left out of the matchday squad three times in cup matches – he has contributed 11 goals and five assists.
On average, Salah had 1.4 goals and assists per game in the first half of the campaign as opposed to his current rate of 0.88 in the second, which still has seven games left – as per FBref.
While his average touches inside the opposition’s penalty box are stable between the first half of the season (7.8 touches per game) and the second half (7.7), his number of shots have decreased.
Salah averaged 3.25 shots per game, but since the midway point of the season he is averaging 2.38, and his shot-creating actions have also dropped.
Firstly, a shot-creating action is one of the two last offensive actions in the lead-up to a shot, which can include a pass, tackles, dribbles and fouls.
The 32-year-old was averaging 4.18 shot-creating actions in the first half of his season, compared to his current rate of 1.9 – quite a noticeable drop.
It dovetails with Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s injury and the squad’s increasing fatigue, but are these numbers consistent with Salah’s trend historically at Anfield?
Salah’s history at Liverpool
Salah has often found himself at the Africa Cup of Nations throughout Liverpool’s season over the years which somewhat distorts the figures, as does when the Reds exit cup competitions.
But the trend clearly shows when he is most influential, and that is in the first half of a season.
In all competitions, Salah has scored 141 goals and contributed 59 assists in the start of the season, compared to the 102 goals and 50 assists after the midway point.
That means Salah scores 58 percent of his goals in the first half of the season, and 54 percent of his assists.
Whether it be cumulative fatigue, his direct opponent stepping up their game or opposition teams figuring him out and changing their tactics accordingly, Salah is not quite the same all season round.
It is a debatable subject, with some of the mind that expectations change as the season goes on and thus he is more harshly judged, but the trend is still evident in the Premier League only (above).
Only three times has Salah scored more goals in the second half of a Premier League season than the first for Liverpool, with 2022/23 the biggest differential with five goals.
This is not a hit piece on the Egyptian, far from it, it is merely providing evidence behind when he is at his best and, thankfully, it will deliver a league title this season.
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