Liverpool's 5-1 rout of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League came as a major boost for Arne Slot's side after four successive defeats, but one man didn't seem in the mood to celebrate after the final whistle. Mohamed Salah clapped the away fans at Deutsche Bank Park, but then headed straight for the tunnel instead of revelling in the final result with his euphoric team-mates.
Although it wasn't quite the strop some outlets have suggested, Salah's body language certainly told the story of a man who is enduring the worst period of his entire Liverpool career. Slot made the bold call to drop last season's PFA Player of the Year to the bench as he shifted from his typical 4-2-3-1 formation to a 4-4-2, with £116 million ($155m) summer signing Florian Wirtz covering Salah's spot on the right flank, and it paid off handsomely.
The Reds produced by far their most complete display of the season to demolish Eintracht, with Salah reduced to a 16-minute cameo in which he offered little to nothing. The 33-year-old managed 12 touches, lost possession four times and missed two big chances, including a poor 89th-minute finish as he selfishly opted to shoot from a tight angle instead of squaring to Wirtz for what would have been a certain sixth goal for Liverpool.
Of course, Salah has an endless amount of credit in the bank with the Anfield faithful. His status as a club legend and one of the greatest players in Premier League history can never be taken away. However, as we edge towards the midway point of his ninth season at Liverpool, Salah is now showing clear signs of decline.
The Reds can't afford to carry any passengers if they want to lift more silverware come May, and right now, that's exactly what Salah is. For Liverpool to build on Wednesday's victory, Slot must continue to keep the 'Egyptian King' out of his starting XI.
(C)Getty Images'Technique looks well off'
Slot had little choice but to take Salah out of the firing line after his woeful performance against Manchester United last weekend. Facing Liverpool's arch-rivals traditionally brings the best out of Salah, who had scored a staggering 16 goals in 17 appearances against the Red Devils before Sunday's clash at Anfield. There was no fear factor around him this time, though.
Salah's decision-making and execution let him down throughout the 2-1 defeat, most notably when he fired wide from eight yards out just after the hour mark, squandering a golden opportunity that he would, not so long ago, have dispatched with ease.
Slot defended Salah after the game, but his actions spoke louder than words, with the Dutchman opting to substitute the attacker for Jeremie Frimpong in the 85th minute, when Liverpool were chasing an equaliser. United legend and pundit Gary Neville was among those left shocked by Salah's ineffectiveness, and suggested it could be "one season too many" for the Egypt international.
"Usually a player getting towards the end of his career, what you notice is the physical decline," he said on the . "And I’m not seeing a physical decline in him in respect of sort of like some of his sprints look quite sharp, he looks busy in the box. But just like crazy things like the ball comes to the back post, his technique on his kicking and he’s sort of crossing, that’s the thing that looks well off."
AdvertisementAFPShould have walked away on top
Those technical issues have been clear throughout the 2025-26 campaign. Salah has now gone seven Premier League games without a non-penalty goal for the first time since joining Liverpool from Roma in 2017, and his numbers have fallen drastically when compared to this time last season.
He racked up 10 goal contributions in Liverpool's first eight league games under Slot, but has just four to his name this term. Aside from his match-winning turn against Atletico Madrid on matchday one in the Champions League, Salah has been a shadow of the man who emerged as the early favourite for the 2025 Ballon d'Or.
It's a nightmare situation that Liverpool would have never seen coming when handing Salah a new two-year contract extension in April. Fenway Sports Group (FSG) had previously been reluctant to sign off on lucrative new deals for players over the age of 30, but made special exceptions for Salah Virgil van Dijk, who has also suffered an alarming dip in form in recent months.
Maybe Neville is right in the case of Salah: he should have walked away on top. The final chapter in Salah's Liverpool story now threatens to be an ignominious one, with a 2026 transfer to long-time suitors in the Saudi Pro League not out of the question if his struggles continue.
AFPTrent-shaped hole
Salah has not just become a bad footballer overnight, though. There are mitigating factors that cannot be ignored, including Trent Alexander-Arnold's summer transfer to Real Madrid.
Alexander-Arnold was Salah's partner on the right side of the pitch for eight years; they had a near telepathic understanding and brought the best out of each other. Without the constant supply of defence-splitting passes from Alexander-Arnold, Salah would not be third on Liverpool's all-time scoring list, and Slot may not have delivered the Premier League title in his first year at the helm.
Slot also adopted a "risk and reward" stance with Salah last season that allowed the Egyptian the freedom to stay in advanced areas. “As long as you rest me defensively, then I will provide offensively,” Salah famously said to in April.
Unfortunately, Salah is no longer living up to that promise, and Liverpool have lost all balance defensively. Conor Bradley and Frimpong, the latter of whom followed Wirtz to Anfield from Bayer Leverkusen, have both failed to fill the void at right back left by Alexander-Arnold, with Slot turning to Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo for cover at times, while the once reliable Ibrahima Konate has also been wildly inconsistent at centre-half.
As a consequence of all that, opposing teams are readily exploiting the massive gap between Salah and whoever Slot chooses to play behind him. If Salah isn't bringing goals or assists, or putting in any work in defence, Liverpool might as well be playing with 10 men. It's simply not sustainable.
Getty Images SportCrippling effect of grief
The tragic death of Diogo Jota has clearly weighed heavily on Salah, too. "Until yesterday, I never thought there would be something that would frighten me of going back to Liverpool after the break," he wrote on Instagram after Jota and his brother Andre Silva were killed in a car crash on July 3. "Team-mates come and go but not like this. It's going to be extremely difficult to accept that Diogo won't be there when we go back."
Indeed, Salah was unable to hold back tears when Jota's chant rang out across the Kop after Liverpool's 4-2 win over Bournemouth on the opening day of the new season. "It was quite tricky for me because I didn't prepare myself for that," he later explained in an interview with . "Usually, I clap for the fans after the game to tell them, like, thank you for coming for the game. But then once I stood in front of the Kop, they were singing for Diogo. Then my emotions came and in my mind (I was thinking about him). Then you just (try) to handle it. But then you can see, many people in a Kop also are like showing their emotions or what they feel. So then you start to break down a little bit."
Compassion is needed when analysing Salah's sudden downturn. The effects of grief can be crippling, and there is no timeframe for when they get any easier to cope with. As Van Dijk alluded to after Liverpool's recent defeat to Chelsea, the loss of Jota is hanging over every game they play.
"It was always going to be a tough season," the Liverpool captain told . "Nobody said that it was going to be plain sailing whatsoever. It was always going to be ups and downs for multiple reasons that we shouldn’t forget, and all we have to do is stick together."
Salah might be one of the players who has been hit hardest. If so, that is a completely valid excuse for not reaching the incredibly high standards he has set for himself over the last nine years.