The Mirror published an article talking about the decline in Liverpool striker Salah's condition.
Liverpool has always been accurate in balancing important players, major deals and key decisions. Few players achieve greater success after leaving Anfield, and the Reds usually make the most of their peak years before they leave the team.
This principle was tested last season. Salah, who was 33 years old at the time, hoped to renew a generous contract with the team. All data models suggest that his age will soon lead to a decline in form, but his performance on the field is exactly the opposite.
Salah scored one of his best seasons last season and ended up scoring 34 goals. Only in his first season did the Egyptian player score more goals. However, he has started slowly this season and doubters will claim warning signs have long been revealed.
Salah signed a new contract on April 11. Liverpool had almost secured the championship at the time and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction, but the high-profit scorer's data quickly began to decline.
He scored only 2 goals in the last nine games last season. He has scored 2 goals so far this season. This means that Salah has scored only four goals in 16 games since failing to score against Everton in early April, an average of one goal per four games.
This data is not ideal for a player who lives by scoring goals. Even his creativity has dropped sharply, with only three assists in the last 17 league games. At the same time, Liverpool's own problems have been frequently exposed, which may further highlight Salah's insufficient contribution.
For Slot, it was a summer of change. The outside world originally expected him to continue his dominant performance last season. However, the massive investment in the lineup seems to have lost everything to sync. The five-game winning streak at the beginning covered up serious cracks, and even Salah seemed to be unable to escape. Isaac and Ekitic have joined to lead the forward line, but it is not yet clear who should play which position.
Wilz, who once joined the British transfer record, arrived as a traditional No. 10 player, but started slowly and it still took time to integrate him into a system that rarely uses the core of the organization. Salah's partner Arnold on the right has also transferred to Real Madrid.
Flynnon was bought as Arnold's replacement, and Bradley also continued to fight for more opportunities to play at the right back position. But so many changes are very significant and seem to affect every player on the team.
Liverpool's tactical style has long been simple but effective, despite some fine-tuning over the years. But high strength and high speed offensive and defensive conversions are always their mark, which is also very suitable for Salah's characteristics. Nowadays, as they try to change their style with new players, the results are not ideal.
Each data proves that Salah's influence on the game has decreased, he has fewer shots, fewer positive shots, fewer chances, and fewer dribbling than ever before. All of this has resulted in a decrease in the goal return and even his attitude has been questioned.
After losing to Chelsea, Rooney said: "The top players are arrogant, and Salah has long been one of the best players in the league. When everything goes well, you keep scoring goals and winning games, it's good, and the team will tolerate his defensive problems. But over the past week, I'll question his game input, I know he's not always actively back to defense, but in the game against Chelsea, his full-back was completely blown up and he's just waiting and watching."
In the end, it was Chelsea's full-back Kukurelia - the guy who should have been marked by Salah - who gave a stop-off assist at Stamford Bridge. Salah is usually exempted from some defensive responsibilities, but this is generally offset by his contribution to the offensive third zone, but that is not the case now.
If Liverpool in this new era wants to complete evolution, they still need the stars of their past era to show their consistent performance. For eight years, Salah has been a goal-scoring machine. Just last month, he was declared the fourth best player in the world in the Golden Globes.
Right now, he looks far from that level. How much of this is his personal reason, and how much is the reason for Slott's Liverpool 2.0 system, which has become the focus of the debate. Regardless, the striker and his head coach need to find a solution.