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It's been some time, but Mohamed Salah was back playing the main part in recent days with a brace in Casablanca that confirmed the Egyptian team's place at the global tournament. The main man claiming the spotlight yet again. The Merseyside club require him to keep that position.

Factors for Variable Performances

We see several factors why unsteady, unimpressive performances have been the recurring theme characterizing the team's start to their title defence, if they recorded seven wins in a row or, prior to Manchester United's visit to Anfield on Sunday, three consecutive defeats. The disruption from so many summer changes, the coach's search for his top team, Diogo Jota's loss; the winger has experienced the impact of them all during his atypically low-key beginning to the season.

Sunday's Key Fixture

The weekend's key fixture could deliver the spark for the source of a record 16 scores in 17 outings for Liverpool against United, who are making their 100th visit to Anfield and have not won at their archrivals for more than nine years. Salah will create the manager with another unforeseen dilemma, yet, if he continue lost in the turmoil indefinitely.

Latest Display

The team's boss likely seen the contrast of the player's first goal against the opponent in midweek. Drilled first time with the outside of his stronger foot into the front post, his eighth strike of the national team's qualifying effort came from an nearly the same location to his costly miss against Chelsea prior to the break for internationals.

Had that attempt been converted shortly after the resumption at Chelsea's ground we would even now be eulogising Florian Wirtz's maiden superb pass in the Premier League. Analyses into Salah's decline and the team's infrequent losing run might also have been postponed. Rather, the midfielder's search continues while Slot stews over a third consecutive loss on the road, a couple inflicted by dying-minute strikes and another the result of a debatable penalty. Small margins, as Slot reiterated on recently, but they do not camouflage bigger issues.

Last Season's Contribution

Salah was crucial in pushing Liverpool towards a record-equalling 20th crown the previous term while doubt over his long-term plans rumbled in the backdrop. “We brought almost the maximum out of Salah this season,” said the manager when his top scorer signed a fresh deal in the spring. There has been a clear drop-off on an personal and team level since. The lineup, not the details of a deal, are to blame.

Performance Decrease

The 33-year-old's contribution in terms of goals and setups is reduced 50% on the same stage last season, from a combined eight in the initial seven fixtures of 2024-25 to 4 (a pair of goals and two assists) this season. The count of shots has dropped from 22 to 12 while accurate shots have fallen from 15 to 5, leading to a significant drop in conversion rate (not counting blocks) from 78.9% to 55.6 percent, data show.

A single trait that has stayed stable is Salah's playmaking. With 12 key passes, versus fourteen at the comparable period of last campaign, his numbers are among the top in the continent and up in the ranks of young talents and Arda Güler, his juniors by fifteen and 13 years each.

Team Performance

Indicators of collective performance will concern Slot further. Salah had 76 touches in the opposition penalty area in the first seven league games of the prior campaign. The current campaign's count is 39. The numbers are indicative of the team's problems overall. Only United and the Gunners have tried a greater number of attempts on goal than them this season, but the team's rate of shots from inside the six-yard area is the poorest in the division, their ratio from outside the area among the highest. Liverpool's proportion of efforts on goal – 28.4% – is also among the lowest in the league.

“In the first half of last season we mainly found the net from an individual brilliance from an attacker and in the later stage it was more from a free-kick or corner,” the manager said. “Currently we lack as numerous moments of genius and we have not found the net from set pieces. But we are still the side that from live action produces the highest xG chances.”

Recent Additions

They are not beating rivals in the way the coach planned when Wirtz, the French forward and the Swedish striker were signed in the offseason, though Liverpool remain the league's third-best scorers. A tie on Sunday would be enough for him to achieve the 100-point mark in fewer games than any boss in Liverpool's history (forty-six). Imagine what his attack will do when it finally gels. The side remain a squad of outstanding talent, able to starting and reeling in any foe for the championship, but cohesion is missing. This cannot be attributed on the recent arrivals only.

Personal and Team Issues

The player is not the only key player to suffer a dip, with Alexis Mac Allister returning to form and Ibrahima Konaté toiling. But he ends up at the core of the upheaval that has lately enveloped Liverpool. That applies to a individual level, with his sorrow over the loss of Diogo Jota obvious on that heartfelt first game against Bournemouth. The effect of his tragedy can neither be quantified nor ignored.

Strategic Shifts

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