For Liverpool fans, this season has been frustrating enough to make them want to tear their hair out until they’re as bald as Arne Slot. The Champions League destruction of Galatasaray at Anfield was hailed by neutral observers as a potential catalyst to turn things around. Instead, it was followed by yet another discouraging loss, this one at Brighton. Even a Champions League place for the Premier League’s fifth-place team this year might not be enough to book Liverpool’s spot next season.
Now comes the news that Mohamed Salah will depart Liverpool at season’s end. The Egyptian magician will leave Liverpool fans with many sweet memories, but 2025-26 has been a source of annoyance for him as well. The searing breakaway runs have disappeared, and the left-footed shots that used to curl in from the right side have been going wide instead. It’s not just the eye test that he’s failing either — his xG rating has been in the 20s every season since he joined the Reds, but this year it has yet to crack double digits.
Mohamed Salah could still play a crucial role for Liverpool
However, it says here that the legendary winger isn’t completely washed. While Slot still roams the touchline for Liverpool, he can still give Salah a shot in the arm before he goes and give the team a chance to make a charge in the league and in Europe. He should convert Salah into a center forward.
Liverpool’s much-vaunted transfer activity from last summer hasn’t borne the fruits everyone expected. Alexander Isak got hurt just as he was kicking into gear, and while Bundesliga acquisitions Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitiké have impressed in spurts, consistency has eluded them. Along with Salah’s struggles, these have added up to an offense that looks stodgy next to the electrifying displays that the team enjoyed in years past.
Shifting Salah to the middle would give him scoring chances from closer in. Number 11 may not have the speed that he used to, but he still knows how to coordinate his movements with his fellow forwards. He has experience playing in the middle, too. His time at AS Roma wasn’t the most effective, but he played as a second striker/attacking mid there, so occupying the middle and finding space there isn’t foreign to him.
The schedule still holds big games for Liverpool, with an FA Cup tie against Manchester City and a Champions League tilt with Paris St.-Germain next. Who would lay money on the Reds in those matches based on their current form?
A drastic measure could be just the thing to salvage a trophy from this campaign. More than that, giving Salah a better chance to score some key goals in those fixtures would let him say his farewell to Liverpool in grand style. A generational talent like him deserves nothing less.