Why mighty Mohamed Salah is hitting new heights at Liverpool under Arne Slot… and why the Reds must break the bank to keep him – THE SHARPE END
Mohamed Salah, at the age of 32 and with his contract expiring, is producing better numbers for Liverpool than he ever has before. That much is clear.
The simple maths is as follows: Nineteen games, 12 goals, 10 assists. Salah is averaging a goal or an assist every 69 minutes. Even in his devastating debut season at Anfield in 2017-18, when he scored a monster 44 goals, Salah only averaged an involvement every 71 minutes.
Salah brought up double figures for both goals and assists after 17 games, the first player from Europe’s top five leagues to do so in all competitions, and by far the quickest a player to do it for Liverpool in the last 40 years. The previous quickest was Luis Suarez in 2013-14 who took 23 games.
In the Premier League alone his goals and assists have been worth 17 points for Liverpool this season, more than any other player in the division.
It is clear they would be much worse off without him and that his influence on Liverpool’s fortunes is far greater than anyone else.
It’s that influence and importance that leaves Liverpool’s owners scratching their heads and totting up the beads on their abacus over Salah’s new contract or, more accurately, the lack of one.
Mohamed Salah is enjoying the best form of his career this season under Arne Slot at Liverpool
This season Salah is hugging the touchline even more than he did last when he was criticised for being out wide too often
Liverpool look more balanced under their new manager, who has brought with him a new restrained approach
In his bombshell revelation to Mail Sport at St Mary’s Stadium, Salah revealed Liverpool were yet to put an offer on the table. He was, in his own words, ‘more out than in’ on whether he’d be at Liverpool next season.
Liverpool owners Fenway Sports Group, FSG for short, are reluctant to hand big contracts to players in their 30s. Because of that, they have waved goodbye in the past to Sadio Mane, Gini Wijnaldum, Roberto Firmino, Joel Matip, Thiago, Adam Lallana and James Milner to name but a handful. The logic is sound.
Players in their 30s are past their prime so why stretch the purse strings and creak the wage structure for an ageing star with no resale value who could decline not long after the ink is dry.
Salah, though, feels different. And, importantly, so too do Liverpool. This is no longer Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, this is Arne Slot’s Liverpool. This is not the gung-ho ‘Heavy Metal’ Liverpool of yesteryear that harassed opponents and pressed with such ferocious intensity it would surely sap the energy out of a 32-year-old’s legs eventually, regardless of how Salah’s six pack may bulge every time he rips his shirt off to celebrate in front of the Kop.
This is a Liverpool that’s far more contained, far more selective in when to use their bursts of energy.
Already this season, Salah is sprinting less, covering less distance around the pitch, pressing less and winning less possession in the final third than across the previous four campaigns under Klopp.
The demand on his legs and the impact on his body is far less brutal under Slot. He can conserve energy and, potentially, keep him playing at the peak of his powers for longer.
Slot’s style of play, beyond the change in intensity, is getting Salah into more influential positions on the pitch. He’s having a higher percentage of his touches in the right side of the penalty area, from where he gets most of his goals and assists, where he is at his most dangerous.
This season Salah is getting on the ball in more dangerous positions than he did in the past
The 32-year-old is running and pressing less than he did under Jurgen Klopp but his production has improved
Salah is already earning about £350,000 a week and that, realistically, rises well above that with the bonuses he’s racking up in his current hot form. He would likely want more than that on a new deal.
Is it worth the gamble? To let Salah walk away, when he’s playing like this, would be a huge risk, both on the pitch and the furore it would provoke in the stands. Give him his dough, as the chant goes, and what does that mean for Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold who are also out of contract?
Let him go and how do you replace someone so influential? Liverpool and Slot, even without their talisman, would find a way. They found a way to replace Ian Rush, they found a way to replace Suarez, they found a way to replace club legend Steven Gerrard and then went on to win the Premier League without him.
Heroes leave and new stars eventually shine in the dark spaces they leave behind.
The question is, with Salah at the top of his game right now, do they really want to have to do it all over again?
