Mohamed Salah stands to the right of Curtis Jones. The date is November 2nd 2024, and Liverpool are drawing 1-1 vs Brighton at Anfield, 16 minutes remain.
What happens next is something Premier League defenders have surely seen in their nightmares for years: a quick pass to the Egyptian, an incision cut with Salahs left foot, followed by a curled rocket into the top bins.
The match ends 2-1, and Arne Slots men, or Mohamed Salahs men, extend their lead over Arsenal at the top of the table.
Liverpool wouldn't have won the league without Mo Salah, suggest the stats
This familiar tale would go on to define Liverpools title-winning season - their first in front of fans for 30 years.
Salah, who won the 24/25 Golden Boot, bagged 29 goals in 38 appearances, with 26 of those being meaningful goals.
This refers to any strike that is an equaliser, a winner, or to put their team ahead by two goals.
Across the games he scored in, Salah, who ranks No.1 in FourFourTwo's list of the best Premier League wingers of all time, outperformed his xG by a whopping 7.5, earning Liverpool 51 points (data via Opta).
This is without considering the value of his 18 assists - the most of any Premier League player since Kevin De Bruyne tied Thierry Henrys record of 20 assists in the 19/20 season.
On the playmaking side, 15 of Salahs 18 assists were of meaning, with the Egyptian also registering the most 'Big Chances Created' in the league (27).
This was 13 more than the Reds next most creative player, Trent Alexander-Arnold, who the club lost to Real Madrid last summer.
The date is now August 31st 2025, and Liverpool just beat Arsenal at Anfield.
The games only goal came from a Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick in the 83rd minute - an absolute rocket from over 30 yards out.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Salah didnt take a single shot all match. It was just the fourth time this has happened in the Egyptians entire Liverpool career, and three of those games have now occurred under Arne Slot.
This victory over Arsenal marked the third consecutive game the Reds won with a goal after the 80th minute, a feat they performed twice more against Burnley and Atletico Madrid in the weeks following. Since then, Liverpool have lost six out of their last seven matches, including a 3-0 loss at Anfield to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, which saw Arne Slot drop every member of his previous starting line-up except Milo Kerkez.
Liverpool fans must accept a harsh truth if they want to win anything of substance in 2026: Mohamed Salah won his team the Premier League last season, not Arne Slot. By acknowledging who actually brought Liverpool to league glory, fans will find the means to judge Slot not as a Messiah, but as a manager whose job deserves to be in peril.
A brief look at Salahs goalscoring overperformance in so many tight victories last season reveals that the Dutchman didnt tactically outclass the rest of this league - he relied upon the showstopping brilliance of a forward who registered the most productive campaign of any attacker across a 38-game season in Premier League history (47 G/A).
As for why Liverpool are suffering so badly this season, the truth extends beyond Mohamed Salahs individual form. In the opening month of the season, Salah received fewer touches in the opposition box and took fewer shots per game than at any point in his Liverpool career to date.
In comparison to the 24/25 season, the Egyptian took 10.5 touches per game in the opposition box compared to 5.6 touches this year. He has gone from averaging 3.5 shots per game last season to 2.2 shots now, a decrease amplified by these latest attempts also having a lower xG on average (data via SkySports).
In Liverpools last game, a 3-2 loss away to Brentford, the Egyptian plucked a chest-high pass out of the air then lashed in a half volley on his weak foot.
As the ball crashed in off the crossbar, fans saw a glimpse of the magic that Arne Slot harnessed to build a career at Liverpool - the Mohamed Salah sorcery that can win a game out of nowhere. Recent missed chances from the Egyptian can be easily explained by a lack of goalscoring confidence instilled during that opening month, which saw him in less threatening positions than ever before for Liverpool.
Perhaps the source of the issue also stems from Slots obsession with making his summer signings the star men of this team. Out of Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitik, only the latter has hit the ground running.
Isak, who scored the second most goals in the Premier League last season, has managed to convert just once in eight appearances for the Reds, whilst Wirtz is still looking for that elusive first goal.
If his system continues to fail, fans must embrace the reality that Slot may be incapable of managing a team at this level. Until then, all they can do is hope that Mohamed Salah, who has taken the club to such heights since he joined in 2017, has enough left in the legs to do it one more time.
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