Mohamed Salah is set to be Liverpool star man again and impress new boss Arne Slot
Not for the first time, Mohamed Salah has reported back to pre-season with something of a point to prove for Liverpool. Previously belittled as a ‘Premier League flop’ before ‘one-season wonder’, he has emphatically made a mockery of such tags during his seven years at Anfield.
Winning every major honour while returning 211 goals and 87 assists from 349 appearances, his status as one of the Reds’ greatest ever players altogether, never mind limiting him to the Premier League era, is already secure. But that hasn’t stopped question marks from arising over his head during the calendar year.
He missed seven Liverpool matches following Egypt’s elimination from the the Africa Cup of Nations, having suffered a hamstring injury in the group-stages in January. The issue itself, along with a subsequent recurrence after scoring off the bench when making his initial return against Brentford, would see him sit out 10 matches in total as he spent the best part of seven weeks on the sidelines.
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Of course, injuries are just part of the game and are viewed accordingly. But not when it comes to Salah, having previously made an extraordinary availability record become ordinary, such is the longevity of his remarkable consistency.
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Having only ever missed six matches because of injury or illness for the Reds in the previous six and a half years, such an absence was comfortably the longest of his Liverpool career to date. With his contract set to expire next summer, it was a glimpse into the future at Anfield as club bosses continue to ponder a long-term succession plan.
But now 32 years old, a maiden lengthy lay-off also inevitably prompted questions regarding whether the club’s previously superhuman Egyptian King is ‘becoming mortal’ in his veteran years, with the Reds no longer able to take his availability for granted.
Throw in a loss of form following his return during the final two months of the campaign, where he scored just twice from open play during Liverpool’s final 12 matches, and such murmurs rear their head even more. He would even be benched by Jurgen Klopp during such a rut, away at Fulham and West Ham United, before publicly clashing with his German manager on the sidelines when introduced late on during the latter as such frustrations boiled over.
Salah has suffered a post-AFCON loss of form before. In 2021/22, he would score just five times from open play from 25 club appearances following Egypt’s final defeat to Senegal in what would still prove to be a 31-goal campaign. And that decline also came as he headed towards the final year of his contract.
But while he would bounce back with another 30-goal season after signing an extension in what was ultimately a disappointing year for the Reds in 2022/23, those initial dwindled returns came without injury. And now Salah is two years older.
Natural decline comes for all aging players. As the Egyptian heads into his eighth season at Anfield, onlookers watch on, eager to point out any such signs having previously seen a ‘Premier League flop’ before a ‘one-season wonder’. It will be up to Salah to prove that such a time has not come just yet.
He still top-scored and assisted for Liverpool last season despite that two-month lay-off, with 25 goals and 13 assists from 44 appearances. And he remains the talismanic star player in Arne Slot’s inherited squad. But having finished last season out of form, the jury remains out on whether it was just a blip amid mitigating circumstances, or a concerning sign of something more.
It’s telling that as Salah once again prepares to enter what could be the final year of his Reds career, there is not the same anxious furore regarding his future and supporter desperation for a contract extension to be agreed. Of course, that could soon well change if the Egyptian rediscovers his best form once the new season gets underway.
While uncertainty over his future beyond the current campaign continues, he has at least seemingly committed his future to Liverpool for the coming season. And he’s made a strong first impression on Slot too after reporting back for pre-season in pristine physical condition.
“Mo came back strong, he was really fit,” the Dutchman told club media earlier this month. “I think that is what he has always been, but it’s the same this year.”
Salah won the new head coach’s newly-introduced Six-Minute Race Test (6MRT), emphasising that he’s fitter than ever and continues to lead the way in the Reds camp, while the forward is set to benefit from a full pre-season campaign after last year’s injury disruption.
Given that Klopp previously backed the Egyptian to play well into his 30s, following in the footsteps of the likes of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Lewandowski and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, tales of his demise could well, once again, have been greatly exaggerated.
“I’ve never spoken to Mo about how long he wants to play, but he has all the things you need to do that,” Klopp said back in September 2021, ahead of a meeting with a then 39-year-old Ibrahimovic’s AC Milan. “He is more physically the type of Lionel Messi, obviously, similar height and weight, probably, so all these guys need to be lucky with the injuries.
“They were not without injuries but they could always come back from that without any further harm. That is very important. You need to be very lucky but Mo has all the things you need and I am pretty sure the way he sees football, he wants to be a part of the game for as long as he can, somehow.
“And there is no reason why he shouldn’t be able to do that. It is about attitude, obviously, you want it. I am pretty sure a couple of players finished their careers because they couldn’t be that motivated, they say ‘I want this or I want that but I am not the same as I was a few years ago’. That is why people finish their careers.
“I can’t see that with Mo, I am pretty sure Mo wants to squeeze each day out of his career as well, yes.”
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Three years on and after his first lengthy injury setback at Liverpool, Salah is about to put such words to the test. As Klopp said, it is now about how he comes back.
Salah captained the Reds throughout their pre-season tour of the United States, setting up the winning goal for Dominik Szoboszlai with a well-timed through-ball against Real Betis, scoring in the 2-1 victory over Arsenal and assisting again for Curtis Jones after a mazy run in the 3-0 thrashing of Manchester United.
He has started the Slot reign on the right foot, and while still early days, the evidence so far suggests that he is by no means ready to be put out to pasture just yet.
But while he can easily silence any questions about his form and future availability on the pitch once the season gets underway, the remaining question about his future remains. Is this summer the start of a long goodbye, or is there another contract extension left for Salah to sign?
When the forward extended his most recent contract until 2025, club bosses believed such an expiry still fell within the Egyptian’s ‘peak years’. Such a stance would suggest that the Reds were not anticipating a decline just yet, and that more is very much still to come.
Salah could well have plenty left to squeeze out of his career. But while he heads into Slot’s first campaign as Liverpool’s most important player, time will tell if their working relationship is to last longer than just a year.
