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It has been a period, but Liverpool's forward returned playing the lead part in recent days with a double in Morocco that sealed the Egyptian team's position at the 2026 World Cup. The key player stepping on the spotlight yet again. The Merseyside club need him to stay there.

Causes for Unsteady Displays

There are many factors why unsteady, unimpressive displays have been the common thread running through Liverpool's start to their championship defense, whether they produced seven wins in a row or, prior to the Red Devils' arrival to Anfield on Sunday, three consecutive defeats. The upheaval from multiple new signings, Arne Slot's quest for his top team, Diogo Jota's tragic death; Salah has experienced the impact of them all during his uncharacteristically low-key opening to the campaign.

The Weekend's Key Fixture

The weekend's key fixture could provide the spark for the cause of a record 16 goals in 17 appearances for Liverpool against Manchester United, who are paying their 100th appearance to the stadium and have not won at their fierce rivals for over nine years. Salah will present Slot with a further unforeseen dilemma, however, if he stay caught in the turmoil much longer.

Recent Display

The team's head coach must have recognized the contrast of the player's first goal against Djibouti last Wednesday. Struck directly with the outside of his stronger foot into the near post, Salah's eighth goal of Egypt's World Cup qualifying campaign came from an very similar position to his expensive error in the Chelsea match prior to the international break.

If that right-foot effort been finished moments after the restart at Stamford Bridge we would still be praising Florian Wirtz's first excellent assist in the Premier League. Analyses into Salah's decline and Liverpool's unusual defeat streak might as well have been postponed. Rather, the midfielder's wait continues while the coach stews over a third consecutive defeat away, two caused by dying-minute strikes and another the result of a debatable penalty. Narrow differences, as Slot repeated on recently, but they cannot hide larger problems.

Previous Campaign's Contribution

Salah was instrumental in pushing Liverpool towards a record-equalling 20th championship the prior campaign while uncertainty over his future lingered in the background. “We brought almost the maximum out of Salah this season,” said the manager when his top scorer signed a new two‑year contract in the spring. There has been a clear decrease on an personal and collective level from then. The lineup, not the details of a contract, are accountable.

Performance Drop

The 33-year-old's contribution in terms of scores and assists is reduced 50% on the same point the prior campaign, from a total eight in the opening seven fixtures of last season to 4 (two goals and a couple of assists) the current campaign. His number of shots has dropped from twenty-two to twelve while accurate shots have fallen from fifteen to 5, causing a steep fall in shot accuracy (not counting blocks) from 78.9% to 55.6 percent, figures show.

One attribute that has remained consistent is his creativity. With twelve opportunities made, versus fourteen at the equivalent point of last term, his numbers remain among the top in the continent and up in the group of young talents and rising stars, his younger counterparts by fifteen and thirteen years respectively.

Team Display

Indicators of team performance will trouble Slot additionally. He had seventy-six contacts in the enemy penalty area in the initial seven league games of the prior campaign. This term's tally is thirty-nine. The stats are indicative of the team's issues overall. Just United and Arsenal have attempted a greater number of shots on goal than them in the current term, but the team's rate of attempts from within the six-yard box is the poorest in the division, their share from outside the area among the greatest. The club's proportion of efforts on goal – 28.4% – is also among the poorest in the competition.

“In the first half of the previous campaign we primarily found the net from a special moment from one of our front three and in the later stage it was more from a dead ball,” the manager said. “Currently we haven’t had as many moments of genius and we haven’t scored from set pieces. But we are nonetheless the side that from open play produces the highest expected goals opportunities.”

Summer Arrivals

They are not hurting foes in the manner the coach envisaged when Wirtz, Hugo Ekitiké and Alexander Isak were acquired in the offseason, while the team are the division's third-best goalscorers. A draw on the weekend would be enough for Slot to achieve the 100-point total in fewer games than any manager in the club's history (46). Consider what his forward line will do when it clicks. The side are still a team of exceptional talent, equipped to sparking and catching any foe for the title, but synergy is absent. This can not be pinned on the summer recruits alone.

Personal and Collective Challenges

The player is not the sole senior member to experience a drop-off, with the midfielder regaining to match sharpness and Ibrahima Konaté toiling. But he is at the center of the disruption that has of late affected Liverpool. That applies to a individual level, with his sadness over the passing of Diogo Jota clear on that heartfelt opening night against Bournemouth. The influence of Jota's loss can neither be measured nor ignored.

Strategic Adjustments

Last season, he