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It's been a period, but Mohamed Salah reappeared playing the main part last week with a double in Morocco that confirmed Egypt's spot at the 2026 World Cup. The main man stepping on the spotlight once more. Liverpool need him to keep that position.

Factors for Unsteady Performances

We see several factors why unsteady, unimpressive showings have been the recurring theme defining the team's start to their title defence, whether they recorded a winning streak or, before Manchester United's visit to Anfield on Sunday, three consecutive defeats. The turmoil from numerous offseason moves, Arne Slot's hunt for his best XI, the late forward's passing; Salah has endured the consequences of them all during his unusually subdued beginning to the term.

Sunday's Big Match

The weekend's big match could deliver the catalyst for the cause of a record 16 scores in 17 outings for the club against Manchester United, who are making their centenary trip to the stadium and have not succeeded at their archrivals for almost a decade. The attacker will create Slot with another surprise issue, though, should he remain caught in the disruption indefinitely.

Current Performance

Liverpool's boss must have recognized the irony of the player's opening strike against the opponent last Wednesday. Drilled directly with the outside of his stronger foot into the near post, Salah's eighth strike of the national team's qualification run came from an very similar spot to his expensive error in the Chelsea match prior to the international break.

If that shot with his right been finished shortly after the restart at Chelsea's ground we would even now be praising Florian Wirtz's first sublime setup in the league. Analyses into Salah's decline and Liverpool's unusual losing run might as well have been delayed. Instead, Wirtz's search persists while the coach stews over a third defeat away, a couple inflicted by last-minute winners and another the outcome of a debatable penalty. Fine lines, as he reiterated on Friday, but they cannot hide larger problems.

Previous Campaign's Influence

Salah was instrumental in propelling the side towards a tying 20th championship the prior campaign while speculation over his future persisted in the backdrop. We extracted nearly the utmost out of Salah last term,” said Slot when his top scorer signed a fresh deal in April. There has been a obvious decrease on an individual and collective level since. The squad, not the terms of a deal, are to blame.

Performance Decrease

His contribution in terms of goals and assists is lower half on the corresponding point the previous term, from a combined eight in the first seven league games of 2024-25 to four (two goals and a couple of assists) this term. The count of attempts has dropped from twenty-two to twelve while efforts on goal have fallen from 15 to five, contributing to a sharp fall in shooting accuracy (excluding blocks) from 78.9 percent to 55.6%, data show.

One attribute that has remained consistent is Salah's creativity. With 12 opportunities made, against 14 at the same stage of last term, his stats stay among the top in the continent and up in the group of Lamine Yamal and rising stars, his younger counterparts by fifteen and thirteen years each.

Team Performance

Measures of collective display will concern Slot additionally. He had 76 contacts in the enemy box in the first seven fixtures of last season. This term's tally is thirty-nine. These figures are symptomatic of the team's issues as a whole. Just United and Arsenal have taken more shots on goal than them now, but the team's proportion of shots from within the goal area is the smallest in the Premier League, their ratio from distance among the highest. Liverpool's proportion of accurate shots – 28.4 percent – is also among the weakest in the competition.

“In the first half of the previous campaign we primarily found the net from an individual brilliance from an attacker and in the second half it was more from a set piece,” the manager said. “Currently we lack as numerous sparks of quality and we have not found the net from dead balls. But we are nonetheless the side that from open play produces the highest xG chances.”

Summer Arrivals

They aren't punishing foes in the manner the coach envisaged when Wirtz, the French forward and Alexander Isak were brought on board recently, although Liverpool stay the league's equal third-top scorers. A tie on the weekend would be sufficient for Slot to attain the 100-point total in fewer games than any manager in Liverpool's history (forty-six). Imagine what his offense will do when it finally gels. The side are still a squad of supreme talent, equipped to igniting and chasing any opponent for the championship, but unity is missing. This cannot be attributed on the summer recruits by themselves.

Individual and Team Problems

Salah is not the only established player to experience a dip, with Alexis Mac Allister working his way back to form and Ibrahima Konaté struggling. But he ends up at the center of the turmoil that has lately engulfed the club. That applies to a individual level, with his sadness over the death of Jota clear on that emotional season opener against the Cherries. The impact of Jota's tragedy can neither be quantified nor ignored.

Tactical Shifts

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