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Michael Owen has offered his take on why Mohamed Salah is struggling for form at Liverpool in the early part of the new season, suggesting it is more than likely just a blip.
Wayne Rooney has been among those to question whether Liverpool should have offered Salah a new contract, believing that his best performances might now be behind him. But the Egyptian has been backed to turn things around in the next few weeks — something that is likelier to happen if his teammates continue to improve too.
On Wednesday, Liverpool won 5-1 against Eintracht Frankfurt, with Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz coming to life. And Arne Slot now has a big decision to make on Salah ahead of the trip to Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday.
"Salah has been scoring goals for years and years," Owen told Sky Bet. "Nobody would be surprised if he scored in his next game and went on a run.
"If there’s anyone in the Premier League you shouldn’t doubt, it’s him.
"That said, if there’s something more going on, then age could be a factor — he’s 33 now. I retired at that age myself, so you can’t go on forever. That’s one possible reason.
"Another is that there’s no Trent Alexander-Arnold feeding him those balls anymore — the dynamic has changed. Conor Bradley plays differently; he looks to run past Salah rather than serve him.
"I did some analysis on TV showing that Salah is picking up the ball about 10 per cent deeper on average than last season.
"The tactics haven’t changed, but the personnel have. Or it could just be that the team isn’t firing yet.
"Every attacking player goes through a spell like this. It’s more likely just a blip, and he’ll bounce back soon, but it could be a bit of all the above."
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Salah has scored three goals this season but hasn't been as clinical as he was in Slot's first campaign in charge. This time around, Liverpool won its first seven matches of the season before going on a four-game losing streak, which was ended in the Champions League.
After dropping out of the Liverpool team midweek, he removed any reference to Liverpool from his social media profiles, and Slot will almost certainly be asked about his talisman in Friday's press briefing ahead of Brentford.
Liverpool.com says: Salah is getting into the right positions but his clinical touch has deserted him (he slashed a shot wide against Manchester United, for instance). For whatever reason, he is lacking confidence, but that won't last forever.
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