By this stage of last season, Mohamed Salah had found the back of the net in five of Liverpool ’s opening six Premier League matches. This season however, he’s drawn a blank in four of their opening six.
It’s been tough to identify a solid cause of his slow start, yet one of the theories has been centred around a different role he has played in Jurgen Klopp's side this season.
There’s a feeling from those who have watched the Egyptian each week that he’s playing much wider than he has in previous seasons, although that was a notion that was quickly disparaged by Klopp in the wake of Saturday's 0-0 draw with Everton at Goodison Park.
“I am not sure what you are seeing, he is not out wide any more than in other seasons,” Klopp stated after the match. “We want to have Mo there in this position but we want to have Mo more often in central positions as well.”
Although the German discredited this theory, the evidence does seem to support the argument that Salah’s not perhaps being handed the same sort of attacking freedom he has been previously. His heatmap from last season compared to this one highlights much fewer actions in the penalty area towards to opposition’s goal so far.
And as a consequence, he’s finding it more difficult to get on the ball as frequently and have the same impact that he’s had previously.
So far this season, the 30-year-old is averaging 43.8 touches per 90, down from 51.6 last season.
He was a target of 64.4 passes per 90 last season, however that has also fallen to just 57.2, only 35 of which on average have actually found him.
It’s not clear if this change in style has been by design - Klopp's comments suggest not - or as a consequence of the changes that have taken place around the attacker this summer, the latter of which seems the more likely.
Through the middle, for example, Liverpool are utilising new signing Darwin Nunez as a more traditional No.9 who spearheads the attack. That’s in contrast to previous years where Roberto Firmino played the role much differently, dropping deep and operating more like a No.10. This saw him vacate spaces for Salah and Sadio Mane to expose through the middle, but these spaces are now more often at a premium.
This change in the mechanics of how Liverpool’s front three operate means Salah should in theory play a different role than what he has in the past.
No longer should he always be looking to be the Liverpool forward closest to goal, but instead should aim to drop in and expose spaces that appear between midfield and defence.
Klopp alluded to the same on Saturday when elaborating further on some of his side’s attacking issues. “If they (wide attackers) drop after two of three passes, then they are completely free between the lines because Darwin kept the last line back with his presence. They (Everton’s defence) like to drop pretty early, but we didn’t do that often enough”.
It’s not just adjusting to Nunez’s arrival that’ll be having a potentially adverse impact on Salah, but also the midfield upheaval around him is more than likely playing a part too.
Last season, Klopp would usually play a more conservative profile in his right-sided No.8 role, someone like Jordan Henderson.
For much of this season though, he’s been using Harvey Elliott. The teenager is a top talent with a very bright future, and he brings a certain level of penetration that the Liverpool midfield has previously missed. Yet rotations down the right side between him, Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold aren’t working as smoothly or coherently as Klopp would have predicted.
This issue, along with the one caused by Nunez’s arrival will likely be fixed with time and more minutes shared on the pitch together, but for now, it’s proving to be an extremely frustrating period for Liverpool’s key No.11.
