Liverpool haven’t one likelihood however two to win a recreation of soccer this week. Albeit that makes up simply half of the four-game dropping run that has despatched the Arne Slot undertaking right into a spin.
How fickle soccer is. Yesterday’s heroes are immediately’s villains, and Liverpool know they should show sharply a return to type as their Premier League title defence crumbles earlier than them.
This appears slightly dramatic, however the Reds are beset with issues, alright, and their points are illustrated clearly by the depressing statistic of 21 objectives shipped in 2025/26. League leaders Arsenal, conversely, have conceded 3 times throughout all competitions.
The forwards aren’t actually firing, both, not on all cylinders, and there is a actual acceptance now that Liverpool have far-reaching tactical imbalances regardless of the record-breaking summer time of spending, and by Slot’s personal admission, they don’t have the solutions.
What Liverpool and Slot and the supporters have to rise from this rut is a talisman, one thing to spearhead a cost by means of so many obstacles. Might that, as soon as once more, be Mohamed Salah?
Mohamed Salah’s position this season
This has unquestionably been probably the most difficult interval of Salah’s Liverpool profession. The 33-year-old has regarded a shadow of his traditional self, going through heavy criticism for quiet and wasteful performances on the proper wing.
Soccer’s fickleness casts final 12 months’s unimaginable achievements into the background, and that is unfair. Salah carried Slot’s early undertaking to the very best peak of English soccer, shattering data and scoring 29 objectives and offering 18 assists throughout the Premier League season. Different avenues raise that haul larger nonetheless.
However, equally, we can’t shirk from the Egyptian’s struggles, having watched this legendary ahead wrestle towards a tide. 4 objectives and three assists from 13 matches is surprising by Salah’s requirements, but it surely’s the squandered probabilities and lack of fluidity which have beggared perception.
Nonetheless, if ever there was a person to return to type, it’s him, and Salah’s comfort objective towards Brentford final weekend served as a well timed reminder of his greatness.
The £400k-per-week famous person will play his half once more this 12 months, to make certain, however Liverpool want a brand new chief.
Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak have been signed on to take the baton as goal-getters-in-chief, however there’s one other participant underneath Slot’s wing who’s proving himself the talisman to drive a pathway out of this mess.
Liverpool’s new model of Salah
If Liverpool’s present “disaster”, as Sky Sports activities’ Jamie Carragher has outlined it, is to abate in time to make this a profitable season, it is clear that leaders are wanted in additional than simply the ahead areas.
Virgil van Dijk has come underneath fireplace for his latest shows, however he stays the galvanising power in defence, barking throughout the sector because the membership’s captain.
However the man rising as the brand new main mild is Dominik Szoboszlai, who has regarded the Anfield aspect’s finest participant throughout a variety of positions this time period, which is equally spectacular and regarding.
It has been over two years since Szoboszlai, 25, moved from RB Leipzig to Merseyside for £60m, and from the get-go, he is supplied bundles of power and tenacity.
Slot’s choice to drag him deeper has proved a profitable one, as Szoboszlai just isn’t naturally prolific in entrance of objective and this deeper berth offers rise to his many different qualities.
Mentioned by analyst Raj Chohan to be “Liverpool’s finest performer at present”, the Hungary captain has raised his recreation, maturing whereas sharpening his technical ability and growing his defensive recreation.
Dominik Szoboszlai underneath Arne Slot (Prem) | ||
|---|---|---|
Stats (* per recreation) | 24/25 | 25/26 |
Matches (begins) | 36 (29) | 9 (9) |
Targets | 6 | 1 |
Assists | 6 | 1 |
Touches* | 46.1 | 86.2 |
Correct passes* | 29.6 (86%) | 53.3 (86%) |
Key passes* | 1.6 | 1.4 |
Dribble (success)* | 0.6 (55%) | 0.8 (54%) |
Recoveries* | 3.7 | 6.2 |
Tackles + interceptions* | 1.4 | 3.0 |
Clearances* | 0.4 | 3.0 |
Duels (received)* | 2.8 (43%) | 4.7 (55%) |
Knowledge through Sofascore | ||
The info reveals us that Szoboszlai has made headway this season, extra sturdy and extra full than his hitherto degree. His physicality and talent to direct and supply dynamism within the build-up is one thing that, say Alexis Mac Allister has did not match, and on this, Szoboszlai is stretching head and shoulders above his teammates.
It appears fairly doubtless that, when Liverpool stabilise, Szoboszlai will be capable to take his recreation to the subsequent degree, nonetheless driving issues ahead however surrounded by a collective competency that’s merely not there proper now.
Soccer is unforgiving. You can’t journey the coattails of your membership’s former successes, standing on the shoulders of giants, a few of whom may even stay inside the first-team squad.
Liverpool had been all the time going to want a interval of adaptation, it was clear this could be a transitional season, missing the fluency and muscle-movement spark of 2024/25 as Slot grabbed and sustained the ultimate embers of Jurgen Klopp’s legacy.
Szoboszlai has retained all that high-octane Klopp-tailored high quality whereas moulding his recreation into one thing Slot-esque too. To place it one other manner, he’s extra full than he has ever been, and he’s far outstripping his struggling teammates.
Slot should devise an answer to this pit into which Liverpool have fallen. So many gamers throughout the sector have to step up.
Szoboszlai can’t stand any larger than he already is, and if the Reds are to show a nook, they are going to owe a lot to the Hungarian machine’s high quality and verve and unbreakable spirit.
