We Need to Talk About Mohamed Salah

We need to talk about Mohamed Salah, the player of the season last campaign. Somebody, I was just looking at these stats from last season and I could not believe what's happened from last season to this season. He had 47 goal contributions in the Premier League last season. How is that even possible? 47 and then the next best player in terms of goal contributions last season was Alexander Izak with 29. But for so much of this season, he's just been completely ineffective and he's definitely gotten at times too much hate. Sometimes he needed to take more responsibility. It's a nuance between all of those things but one thing that is for sure is as you can see here, I pulled up the heat map where he had a total of 35 touches against Galatasaray by the way. His heat map, you can see he is so far isolated on the right hand side and I cannot understand when clearly he's not in a moment in time anymore where he can take players on 1v1. He's not what he was in the 17-18 season. Why are we isolating him so far out wide when what he could be really good at is just being clinical in the final 30. I know he hasn't been that this season but that's a big part of that is because he's just low on confidence and I think he just needs like a run of games but he needs to be in more of those central areas. I don't understand why we're putting him so far out wide and you know, there's no doubt that he's not even on the ball, he's not the player that he was even last season. We have to be honest about that. In the game against Galatasaray, there's many moments you can remember where when it made when it made its way to him, you didn't really feel like he was gonna make something happen or he would lose possession and he's not like I said, I don't think he can kind of make something happen out of nowhere in a way that he used to but he still got elite capabilities where like I said, if you put him in the right areas in the final third, he can go on a run. I believe he still has that, you know what I mean and he's still a top player but I just don't understand why we're putting him so far out wide and I think you know, part of what's difficult this season is it is truly the transition to a Liverpool 2.0 while still having the greatest legends ever and for me personally, no matter what happens this season, no matter what's happened this season, it won't ever change the way I look at Mohamed Salah in terms of what he's actually achieved for Liverpool Football Club and the records he's broken and the dedication he's given and shown the club over all the years he's been here. That's never gonna change for me, you know, like I said, Mohamed Salah goes up there with, you see Stevie G? Stevie G, he's up there with two greatest players of the Premier League era and in terms of legacy that they've built at the club but this season, I just wonder if there's still changes we can make to salvage something because there's no way from one season to the next that the drop-off can be that much in terms of what he can deliver to the team. I'm not willing to believe that and like I said, let me know in the comments what you think we can still do with Mohamed Salah and let me know if you think he will be here next season because the more time goes on, the more I personally think Mohamed Salah will leave in the summer and one of those reasons is because he's simply not the main man at Liverpool Football Club anymore. I think with the strikers we brought in, obviously Izak is injured right now but it's clear to see that now we're expecting goals from our striker. Before, the striker was more of a false nine that created space and chances for our two inside forwards in Mohamed Salah and Saoudi Omani or Luis Diaz. Like we have those kind of inside forwards, I don't think that's the case anymore in the same way. So now, if our striker is the focal point, I don't know how kind of Mohamed Salah works with all of that, you know, and that's why I think if there's a chance where let's say Saoudi puts in a big bid this summer because he'll only have one year left on his deal, I could see a world where he does leave when like this summer it felt like, you know, he could stay many more years because of the unbelievable, I read you guys the numbers at the beginning of the bit of this video, the unbelievable numbers he put up last season. I don't think any of us could have seen this coming. Anybody who's honest could not have seen this coming and anybody by the way who's didn't deserve that contract is such a hypocrite because there's not one Liverpool fan who wasn't begging for him to get a contract last season and I still think he deserved it. Now, like I said, no matter what he does, he's given so what people don't realize is we know obviously what he's given on the pitch which is legendary status but Mohamed Salah has also given Liverpool so much off the pitch global recognition like just the magnitude of club the magnitude of the club the way he's raised it in terms of the brand globally is massive absolutely massive so it's even like we have to recognize what he's done off the pitch too but like I said I'm still wondering like in this present moment in time what can this club legend still deliver for us what's the best way to utilize him because as I looked at this heat map from the Galatasaray game I'm just like bro this is clearly not working let's not let's not keep on doing what isn't working and I thought in that game because Virts let me know if you guys thought the same I thought we were going to play a kind of 4-2-2-2 I thought we were going to play that kind of system because we saw for example in the game against Marseille that Salah was much better down the middle you know I saw that at least so I'm just wondering how come we decided to not trial that when Virts was starting you know Virts is much better down the middle than he is kind of out wide I think at least so why not kind of try Salah in a two striker system clearly it worked during AFCON with Egypt you saw how he was with Marmouche so I don't understand why we're not trialing that more when we have this season it's been successful a ton so I would have been curious to see that at least till Izak returns too because right now Izak is still going to be out for another month probably and it'll take time for him to really get his match fitness up so let me know what you guys think in terms of Mohamed Salah's position what his future is what you think he can still deliver from now till the end of the season but I refuse to believe that it's that crazy of a drop-off and his ability has been lost I think he needs to be shifted into more of what Ronaldo ended up becoming which is just this player in the box who can just get you goals and I think Mohamed Salah absolutely still has that and he definitely has the creative side of his game I mean look at the assist he's getting but you get what I'm saying like he's that mentality wouldn't have changed for Mohamed Salah his elite mentality wouldn't have changed all the ability doesn't go out overnight I think it's a big part of it is confidence of course the way our team is playing right now clearly him being unhappy in the system and the way where he's he is situated on the pitch like I said he is so far out wide and clearly that's not working so that needs to change you know what I mean and I know you might say why are you specifically making a video about Mohamed Salah mainly because he is such a big talking point and so many have been kind of criticizing in the last 48 hours and definitely his performance against Galatasaray I'm not excusing it because there were definitely you know his touch needed to be better like I said some of his hold up play but so much of our team is just off form and that's where the responsibility is on the manager it is on slot to get the best out of his players and some of that is again finding ways for your system to be set up so that your players play in their best positions that's a big part of it you know what I mean and that's why I'm mentioning this and that's why I think it's important to look at where his touches are to see what positions he occupies on the pitch and where he could be most dangerous you know what I mean and the same could be said about the likes of Virts but what's for sure is like again on paper that front three against Galatasaray you would think is so unbelievably talented Virts, Ekitike and Mohamed Salah and yet it just looks so disjointed it looked like Ekitike was so isolated up top there's so many aspects where again like on paper you'd be like whoa and then you see the reality and you're like this isn't it like something needs to change you know what I mean for us to have that much quality and for us to have that little amount of threat like let's be honest the chances we had against Galatasaray a lot of them was them being sloppy especially in those opening five minutes it was them being sloppy and we should have capitalized but then I'm talking about like purely what we created and the fluidity when our attack it's just not there you know what I mean so that's where I'm just trying to think like what what can we change to make sure that you know we overcome this in the second leg and that we can go more of a run that we can play more exciting attacking football you know and I think in this moment in time like I said especially given that Izak isn't back yet we still need to rely on Mohamed Salah you know he is still somebody who has so much experience who can bring those goals and assists and you know a threat in the final third so that's why I think it is important to discuss this and obviously you know there are things that we can criticize obviously like I said some of the basics like the hold up play and the passing and you know trying to not lose possession that we can criticize but like I said a big part of it too is clearly how do we get him to be confident again that's part of slot's job how do we set him up in a system where it's going to get the best out of him like this is what we need to focus on those are the controllables those are the controllable elements in this situation you know to make sure that we have a strong end to the season as possible because let's be real when we look at last season a lot of our success was dependent on Mohamed Salah and how how much he delivered for us you know week after week and I'm not saying it has to be that same level but how can we get more than what we're getting now which I think is possible and and needs to happen if we want to have hope for for you know this really important kind of business end to the season so anyways let me know what you guys think on all those different questions surrounding Mohamed Salah the Egyptian king the icon where like I said no matter what happens for me you know his legacy his icon status won't change that's the way I see it because I don't forget I'm not going to forget and I'm not going to let a season kind of dent my vision of anybody you know what I mean so anyways let me know your thoughts and as always thank you for your support you'll never walk alone I'll see you guys in the next one ciao guys