Mohamed Salah is always a Liverpool talking point. He is either in the headlines because he is in the conversation for being the best player in the world, or because he has lost form. There is no in between.
At the moment, having spent most of the season leading the pack in the race for the Ballon d’Or, Salah has entered a dry spell. He has 32 goals and 22 assists this year so far but that figure hasn’t changed since March 8 — exactly a month ago — albeit mainly because of the international break.
Salah looked jaded against PSG in the Champions League and Newcastle at Wembley in the Carabao Cup final and hasn’t lit up games with Everton and Fulham. His last goal from open play was at the Etihad Stadium in February.
With Erling Haaland missing through injury at the moment and Alexander Isak too far behind, the Premier League Golden Boot will be heading Salah’s way. So too will a league title winner’s medal.
But the chatter around him, amid the wait for concrete news on a new contract for the Liverpool number 11, has changed, though it is hardly fair. If anyone deserves to go a couple of bad games without comment, it is Salah.
“I’m really hoping that Liverpool stay clear of him,” a caller into BBC 606 said over the weekend. “But I also think Salah wasn’t playing because I think he doesn’t want to get injured. He might be looking at moving away and doesn’t want to get injured before.”
“That’s ridiculous,” pundit Chris Sutton said. “So you think Mo Salah is holding it back because he’s got to move on the horizon?”
(Image: Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Clearly, that isn’t what is happening. After playing so many minutes, Salah has just hit something of a wall. It has happened before with him at the end of a season, and it shouldn’t be a surprise given the volume of games he always plays.
What he needs is for others to step up and help him. Diogo Jota, for instance, did just that against Everton. The issue against PSG and Newcastle was that nobody did; against Fulham, defensive howlers made the attacker’s jobs considerably harder.
When it comes to a new deal at Anfield, Liverpool won’t be swayed by the last few weeks, just as the Reds weren’t influenced by all the noise when Salah was flying. Nothing has changed, though negotiations continue.
Before the campaign is out, the narrative is likely to change again. It normally does with Salah, with the importance of tying him down to a new deal remaining exactly the same.
