There is something strange for Mohamed Salah the ninth game without goals

Welcome back to Premier League Friday. Now we've not said this, I mean ever, but Mo Salah hasn't scored in any of his last nine Premier League games. In fact, his last league goal came on November 1st and his boss Arne Slot admitted today that Salah's drought is a bit of a shock. We are used to Mo scoring a lot of goals and that's at this moment of time maybe the biggest difference in his performances or in his game time. But we also know, even in my time this has happened before, I'm not exactly sure if it happened nine games in a row, but I've had these questions earlier. He didn't score for three, he didn't score for five or I don't know exact numbers. But I also know that in the end he always starts scoring again. And that's the challenge he has now and we have now to make sure he starts scoring again. Yeah, I mean it's a really strange position. It's just such a strange season I guess with Mo Salah. I mean Julian, looking at this, is this form that Salah's been in, do you see it as a blip or is it a genuine decline? I think it's probably the start of the decline really. There's nothing wrong about that. He's 33 years old, it was always going to happen at some point. Yeah, he's maybe not as quick as he used to, certainly not as efficient in front of goals as he used to. There was obviously the crisis before AFCON when he went public. Remember that mix-on interview after the Leeds game? And then he went away and then came back. And since coming back I'm finding him of form really. There's those big chances that he misses. I didn't like his attitude being taken off at Forest on Sunday, I won't lie. I think you haven't played well. I don't know why you're surprised that you're coming off, but the way the face he pulls, not just there but also then on the bench, knowing that the cameras will be on him. He's a club legend and one of the greatest players they've ever had. One of the greatest in Premier League history, I get that. But you're not in good form. Surely he sees that himself. He knows himself he's not in good form. Why are you surprised? I even thought Liverpool played better when he was off the field for the last 20 minutes or so, to be fair. As an ex-pro, how do you view that? You must have seen players at that level and then all of a sudden... 100% and no one's entitled to start just because of what's happened and records has been done. You're judged on the season and your current form and the only way to get out of it is just by hard work. He seems like the person on the training pitch. He gives everything. He's trying to make it happen for some reason or another. It's just not clicking together. The standard that he's set in the last four or five seasons has been ridiculous. The numbers that he's produced as well has been absolutely outrageous. There's a little bit of confidence that's probably dropped as well. It's a factor of a few things, but like I said, you've got to suck it up. The only person that can get back to it is him. There's no one else. He's not entitled to go, I should stay on for 19 minutes to try and get me a goal. Do it earlier. How much damage do you think something like that can do to a dressing room, though? In reality, you've got one of your most decorated senior players, a club legend, and there's discontent there. Yeah. Well, it can be if he stays on the pitch when he doesn't deserve to stay on the pitch. Yeah, exactly. So you think that's what's starting him and playing him when he's not playing well? Well, I think you get to a point where if he's still not performing, then it's a time where you look. If he's that much out of form, but you've also got to remember that at the flick of a switch, he can just manufacture and manoeuvre something into where he wins a game for you as well. But at the moment, he's going to be on that tight lines where he's going, do you know what, he's not performing to the level where he should be starting a game. Look at Riyad Gamal that come on. Look at what he's done in that short period of time. A lot of fans call him out to play. Yeah. Do you think, look, none of us are Liverpool fans. I kind of feel out of place asking the question, but do you think Salah is in danger of tarnishing any of his legacy with how this is kind of all ending? Or I guess when you look back, I guess when you look back... It's always going to have to end at some point, right? And we see more difficult ending of a long career like that, 10-year-ish at a club, than happy ending really in the way that it all finishes. Because I think Liverpool had to give him a new deal last summer. It was very, last season it was difficult. Fans would not have been happy if he had gone on a free, left on a free. But you also knew by giving him two more years that at some point the decline would start. It was inevitable. And he might obviously prove us wrong and score a hat-trick this weekend. Good for him and good for Liverpool if he does. No problem. But those numbers are not a coincidence either. Take us inside that dressing room. There must be some form of divide going on. Will it go quite clicky? Because they were not happy after the first clashes. Remember Alisson and Van Dijk? That's right. Yeah. And again, I think at that time where the performance wasn't right as well, there comes a divide by saying you shouldn't be getting special treatment than anybody else. We're all in this together. The team is together, the squad's together. And it's put on obviously the head coach and the manager. It can cause a divide. It can cause. But like I say, that's down to the manager then to make the decisions in games or before games and trying to say, no, he's not performing to the level X or Y deserve to start. I'm going to change this around. And then it puts you on the player. Mo Salah, are you determined enough? Are you hungry enough to get back to, to try and get back to the levels that you've done before? Yeah. For me, sorry. I know Dembele won the Ballon d'Or, but for me last season it was Salah. No, come on. It was. Not you, Roman. Listen. It was unbelievable last year. Let's expect to see Salah in a Liverpool shirt? I don't. You don't? No. You think this is, this is the season? We'll have another year left, but yeah, I don't think so. And I think they'd be looking for a right winger, probably left footed as well to replace him. Let's talk about Liverpool as a team then, because they look like all of a sudden they'll play a game and they'll look like the Liverpool of old that we were used to seeing, but you're still unconvinced by them. Yeah, I am at the moment. I think they are a team that can certainly drop out of trumpety places at the end of the season, at a crucial time of the season as well. You know, this man, I suppose he's been absolutely superb. He's been the go-to, the mainstay, the one who's taking responsibility. I thought they got away with a lot of luck on the weekend and that, but listen, you earn, sometimes you earn it and it comes around. I know Jamie Carragher said this game was one of the Premier League's greatest robberies. The first half was one of the worst I've ever seen them play. But you think players like Soboleslai had to step up the season, right? Yeah, and he has done that, hasn't he, throughout. I just think it's a transitional period with Liverpool Football Club as well. Even with the manager, I'm not certain that he may even be there next season as well, depending on where they finish. And Viette is injured now and we're not really sure when Viette is coming back. Viette has looked much better, the team has looked much better when he was in charge, really. And now you have to change, Soboleslai has a turn, Frimpont coming back, a right back, but it's difficult when you lose a player like Viette at this time of the season. Have you been shocked by Soboleslai? I don't want to say emergence, because he's always been fantastic, but it feels like he's really stepped up this year. He's stepped up and it seems to me that he's thrived on stepping up as well. These goals, for instance, big moments, when he stands over it or when he's on the ball, you actually feel like he's going to make something happen. Something's going to be created. And that's a big character, a big personality. When he's watching others not performing to the level, he's going, listen lads, leave this one to me, it's fine, I've got this. But try and contribute at some point. He's the next club captain. Once Virgil goes, Soboleslai will be Liverpool captain. You think that's it? I think he's got everything to be the captain. And soon we'll talk about contract extension as well, because he's out of contract in 2028. And I think there's a big battle for them to keep him, because if you're any other big clubs in Europe, a player like him at 25, he's good at everything. He's a pressing machine, he can play right back, he can play midfield, defensively, offensively, wide if you want, he's smart, he's a good boy, he's got everything. West Ham at home next for them. Is it the perfect game or is this a potential banana skin? What do you reckon, Jules? Without Verts, I worry a little bit. We saw against Forest, just a lack of creativity even, and he had to change things at half-time and put Curtis Johnson right back and Soboleslai back, more central. Ekithike is maybe not as sharp, especially without Verts behind him. So there's a lot of things, and Salah as well, that are not really going straight for them. But this is a game for the fight for Champions League next season, which will be tricky now with Villa, Chelsea and United. One of them is going to miss out for sure. They will have to be very careful. How do you think West Ham will view this game? Will they view it as, this is going to be really tough or this is winnable? Yeah, winnable. 100%. That's what they need to do. When you're down the bottom, you need to look at every game. You can't be going, well, if we can get a draw there, we'll be happy with that. And that one, we might not win there, but with three points, we'll bank on three points there. You can't do that. The form that West Ham are in at the moment, they've certainly picked up. They're going to be going, defensively, there's areas where we can certainly exploit for West Ham. Talk to me about what it's like, Arnaslot has come out in the past and said, we don't like low blocks, we're not very good against them. I don't know why he said that out loud, but I mean, this is going to be, surely this is a new-no special, isn't it? Yeah, that's it. Suck up the pressure, defensively be sound, you've got to be disciplined, follow your runners and then you've got to be clinical. That's when it comes down to it. If you're going to hold off on possession and then soak it all up, when you get chances to break, you've got to break with pace and when they're in their attacking positions, your attackers, you have to put the openers on, you've got to put pressure on them to say, listen, you may only get one chance in this game, if you get it, you have to take it. Yeah, very quickly, Jules, Christensio Somerville had a phenomenal season, do you expect him to maybe produce something against Liverpool? I think so, I think he'll be called up by the Netherlands national team for the first time as well in March because he deserved it, he's been outstanding.