Are Liverpool over-reliant on Mohammed Salah’s world class form this season?

National World - LocalTV

Liverpool’s attack has been one of the most feared in world football, but does the team lean too heavily on Mohamed Salah?  The Egyptian forward remains the Reds’ most reliable goal threat, consistently delivering in crucial moments. With his leadership and ability to produce when it matters, there’s no doubt he’s the focal point of Arne Slot’s system. Does this level of reliance leave Liverpool vulnerable if Salah has an off day? To explore this further, we spoke to Will Rooney of LiverpoolWorld.

Transcript

00:00Liverpool's attack has been one of the most feared in world football, but does the team

00:08lean too heavily on Mohamed Salah? The Egyptian forward remains the Reds' most reliable

00:13goal threat, consistently delivering in crucial moments. With his leadership and ability to

00:18produce when it matters, there's no doubt he's the focal point of Arnie Schlott's

00:23system. But with Liverpool falling short of their silverware chase on multiple fronts

00:28this season, despite being likely to return the Premier League title, is there enough

00:33contribution from the rest of the squad? Does the level of reliance leave Liverpool vulnerable

00:40if Salah has an off day? To explore this further, I spoke to Will Rooney of Liverpool World.

00:46Yeah, and looking at Salah, you know, he's no doubt had an unbelievable individual season.

00:54But has there been a bit of moments where you look at the Liverpool side and the Liverpool

00:58attack, as you say, very lacklustre in that final, and you think maybe a bit of over-reliance

01:03on Salah to produce these moments of magic and win games, you know, turn them from losses

01:08or draws to wins. I know he can do that and has done so many times this season. But do

01:13you feel there is a bit of over-reliance on Mohamed Salah? I think when you look at the

01:17stats, perhaps other players haven't stepped up to the plate. It's not like everyone, you

01:23know, let's just get it to Mohamed Salah and he'll score the goals. That's certainly not

01:27the way that Liverpool play. But in terms of the output, there haven't been enough contributions

01:32from the rest of them. I mean, Womble always calls it Gasper hasn't been fixed, he's been

01:36troubled by an ankle injury. Maybe he's come back a little bit too because he was out again

01:42and didn't really do too much against Newcastle. Diogo Jota, fitness issues, has now got form

01:50issues as well. Luis Diaz, I think he's scored one goal since the turn of the year, that was

01:56against Wolves. He started off the season really, really strongly but he hasn't been quite the same.

02:07If you look at him and think, is he 28 now? Is he going to progress any further?

02:13Darwin Nunes, we've spoken enough about Darwin Nunes, haven't we? Throughout the season,

02:19I think it does look like his days are probably going to be numbers. Fair play to Federico Chiesa

02:24coming off the bench and putting the ball away in a really composed manner. There's an argument now

02:30that given Liverpool's struggles at the top end of the pitch, why not give Chiesa a chance as the

02:35number nine? Because it's a position he's played in the past in Italy. But coming back to Mo Salah,

02:42he didn't have his best game. He was probably the worst at front three against Newcastle.

02:52I know we can't do it every game but on a big stage, that's when you want your talisman to

02:56step up. You want him to go and do something. We've seen Virg van Dijk at the back, he was

03:02magnificent at the back. He was probably one of the only starting players who came off with any

03:07credit at the performance. But it's definitely something after the international break that

03:11Ancelotti has to address. How can he get more out at the end for the attacking players? Because

03:16he can't just rely on Salah to come up the guts.

03:20And just on Salah, in terms of his ban on door chances, he had huge shouts for it and he's still

03:26on track to definitely be nominated and be voted very highly with his individual return this season,

03:31especially at his age as well. Obviously, crashing out of the other tournaments as well,

03:36especially Europe, does seem to have a big pull in terms of the ban on door race.

03:42Do you feel his chances are maybe a bit slimmer now if Vinicius Junior goes on or Mbappe goes on

03:49and wins the Champions League with Real Madrid? It might depend on that, yes. There won't be too

03:57many Liverpool fans who are supporting Arsenal in the Champions League but Mo Salah might be one of

04:01them when that tide comes around. If you look at it in terms of numbers alone, Mo Salah is ahead

04:09of Mbappe and Vinicius Junior but you know how much the European Cup carries weight. I think

04:14Salah scored three goals in the Champions League this season, which in terms of his numbers,

04:20that's not a lot. Most of them have come in the Premier League, the most difficult league in the

04:24world but he'll know there's a little bit of noise about it now. He really wants to get his

04:32hands on that prize so he'll know that he has to go again and he'll have to work potentially even

04:37harder. I don't know if that's possible but he might have to if he's to support the Real Madrid

04:42giants.

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