Arne Slot believes Mohamed Salah will struggle to replicate his sensational numbers from this season for Liverpool.
Salah, who turned 32 this year, has been instrumental in the Reds’ success, leading them to their 20th league title with a stellar season. Since his arrival from AS Roma in 2017 for £39million, Salah has consistently delivered world-class performances.
His goals and assists this season not only drove Liverpool up the table, they also earned him a fresh two-year deal that secures his services until 2027. However, Slot, while recognising Salah’s phenomenal season, is cautious about expecting the same level of performance moving forward.
In an interview with The Athletic, when quizzed about Salah’s impressive tally of 33 goals and 23 assists, Slot replied: “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. Even if he scores and assists a few less [sic], it will still be a great season. But I know Mo, he’s going to try to achieve even more. He’s going to work so hard every single day to do even more special things for this club.”
The Reds face FA Cup winners Crystal Palace at Anfield in the final game of the season. So far, Salah has racked up 28 goals and laid on 18 assists in the Premier League.
(Image: AP)
Throughout the campaign, whispers were rife about Salah possibly departing in the summer due to his deal coming to an end. However, all the rumours simmered down in April when Liverpool joyfully revealed that Salah signed a new contract.
Nobody knew what to expect from Slot’s debut campaign after he took over the reins from Jurgen Klopp. Over the course of nine years at Anfield, the German won the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup, and two League Cups.
Clubs such as Arsenal and Manchester United struggled to transition from the ideas of the previous, long-term manager to the fresh philosophies of a new coach. Nevertheless, Slot built upon Klopp’s previous ideas, while also making his own tweaks, to great success.
(Image: 2025 Liverpool FC)
The Dutchman attributed plenty of praise to his predecessor when asked to explain the smooth transition. He added: “I think the reason why this club hired me was that there’s not so much difference between me and Jurgen. There are a lot of similarities in terms of our playing styles.
“So then it’s not so difficult to adjust certain things. If you go from one playing style to another it’s much harder. A lot of things could stay the same and that meant being able to really focus on what needed to be implemented. That’s why I think it was quite fast that you could see certain things being different.
“But still now, even after a season with me, this team are so fast on the counter-attack. I’ve never trained that, by the way! So not everything changed but the few things we had to change we could adjust pretty quickly because a lot of things didn’t need much attention.”
