Liverpool continued its negative results, and was eliminated on Sunday from the fourth round of the FA Cup, by Brighton, 2-1, noting that it reached the middle of the season with 29 points in the league, and ranks ninth in the table, at a time when reports linked the team’s decline to poor performance. Egyptian star Mohamed Salah.
In a report published on its website, the British newspaper “Daily Mail” said: Of course, there are many points to talk about, but there is no doubt that the club’s suffering is related to the star Mohamed Salah, who was unable to reach his previous levels.
In the Reds’ last league match against Chelsea, the Egyptian winger played the full 90 minutes at Anfield, but struggled on the right side and scored his fourth Premier League match without scoring, for the first time in two years.
International heartbreak
And the “Daily Mail” saw that Salah missed his usual level almost a year ago, since losing the African Cup title by penalty kicks to Senegal, led by Sadio Mane, his former colleague who moved to Bayern Munich last summer, before the start of the African Championship last February in Cameroon. Good, scoring 23 goals in 26 matches during the first half of the season.
Salah faced sadness and heartbreak while he was with the Egyptian national team, where he lost the final match on penalties, and his colleague Mane took the kick that awarded the title to Senegal, while Salah did not have the opportunity to pay.
Salah and Senegalese star Mane in the African Cup final
A month later, Egypt played again with Senegal in the play-off round qualifying for the 2022 World Cup. This time Salah hit a penalty kick, but he missed decisively, and once again Mane played a starring role and led his country to the World Cup.
Salah’s level with Liverpool declined for the rest of the season, as he scored only 8 goals out of the 25 matches he played after returning from the African Cup, and only 3 times in 15 matches after the exit against Senegal in the World Cup qualifiers.
In the new season, Salah’s numbers improved slightly, by scoring 17 goals in 29 matches, but he still did not seem dangerous during the matches.
New attack
With Brazilian Firmino moving away from his previous levels and selling Mane to Bayern Munich in the summer, Liverpool headed to sign Darwin Nunez in the summer and before that included Luis Diaz, but Diaz suffered a knee injury since October and is not expected to return until March, while Nunez is still far from expectations, While no judgment can be passed on the newcomer, Cody Gakbo, who arrived in the winter to Liverpool.
The British newspaper said: None of this is Salah’s fault, of course, but the understanding that was between the trio Mane, Firmino and Salah ended, and that the advantages they enjoyed ended, with Mane gone and Firmino absent from his level, in addition to the team’s suffering from a weak midfield.
Salah and Mane in Liverpool
And the “Daily Mail” expected that Salah’s low level could be due to the diminishing of his speed and energy in the face of opponents, and he was no longer able to bypass defenders as he used to do in the past, and his agility also began to disappear.
The newspaper concluded its report, saying: This does not mean that Salah is finished, but far from that, you have to see Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to show how players can continue to perform at the highest level for a long time until their thirties, and Salah has become worried about the fans of his team and has already become a season to forget. .
