That was Liverpool's solution against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, with Slot deploying Florian Wirtz from a right-sided role, drifting inside behind Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak.
It was a relatively bold call to drop Salah, but one that made complete sense after four successive defeats. “‘Rotate’ always comes across as if, ‘Oh, let someone else play a little bit as well’,” said the Reds’ head coach ahead of the game.
“But I said many times, we have a lot of good players and I can use them all. If you play three games in seven days, it would maybe be smart to use them all as well.”
Either way, Liverpool looked more solid, whether that be due to Salah being out of the side or the change in shape, or because Frankfurt weren’t actually very good - certainly the latter played a huge part in it.
Salah’s role, though, is a difficult one. How do you address the elephant in the room when the player in question is on a reported £400,000 per week and last season scored 34 and assisted 23?
Why has Mo Salah's Liverpool form taken a dip?
Two things have hugely affected Salah’s form and role this season.
Firstly, the change in shape, from more of a 4-3-3 to a 4-2-3-1 this season has seen him far wider and often less involved.
Salah’s average touches in the opponent’s penalty area have dropped significantly this season, from 9.20 per 90 minutes last season to just 4.94 (data via FBRef).
Quite simply, Salah, Liverpool’s record-breaking goalscorer is less involved in attacking areas. And that isn’t a good thing.
Back in April, Salah explained an early conversation with Slot: “I told him ‘as long as you rest me defensively, I will provide offensively. Try to rest me as much as I can, then I will show you the numbers'. So I’m glad that I did.”
The change in set-up appears to have changed that approach, and thus left Liverpool’s right-back more exposed - something opponents have identified and targeted. “We tried to attack always because we know that Salah is always ready to attack, to play the counter-attack,” said Chelsea’s Marc Cucurella after their win against Liverpool, with the winning goal exposing Liverpool’s right side.
“It’s always the balance between winger and full-backs that is quite [tough],” said Slot. “I want our full-backs to attack as well, so we have to find the right balance in that. We are conceding too many crosses compared to last season and this is something I’m aware of and we have to do better.”
Secondly, the other elephant in the room is Trent Alexander-Arnold’s departure. The Englishman was key to unlocking Salah, the pair combining repeatedly to split defences, with Alexander-Arnold often responsible for playing the defence-breaking pass for the Egyptian to profit from.
Quite simply, whether it’s Conor Bradley or Jeremie Frimpong, Liverpool’s right back doesn’t offer near the same passing ability to combine with Salah, which is quite understandable given Trent’s unique skillset, but also another part of the confusing puzzle over what exactly the plan was this summer.
Salah’s form is significantly worse this season
Let’s be clear, Salah is out of form - and it isn’t necessarily just this season, his form dipped in the latter part of last season, too. The 33-year-old now has five goals in his last 23 appearances in all competitions, dating back to March and the Carabao Cup final.
This season, he has two non-penalty goals in 12 appearances and his last strike came in mid-September against Atletico Madrid. That may explain his rather self-indulgent cameo against Frankfurt, eager to get himself on the scoresheet rather than gifting new teammate Florian Wirtz his first goal for the club.
Salah’s involvement in creating Liverpool’s chances has also dropped significantly, with last season showcasing his playmaking ability. His key passes per 90 have dropped from an average of 2.23 last season to 1.91 so far this season.
His ‘shot-creating actions’ have dropped from 4.51 per 90 minutes in the Premier League last season, to 2.65 this season.
It’s concerning, and something Slot has sought to explain by saying it’s more of a team-wide issue in scoring fewer open play goals due to how opponents set up against Liverpool now and in the second half of last season, as opposed to earlier on last season.
“I see the same [with Mo’s form now] as the second part of last season, when he scored 12 goals – five from a penalty, one from a set-piece, so six open-play goals,” Slot explained before the defeat to Chelsea. “He is part of a team that faces different opposition than the first half of last season.”
Slot admitted the new system, with new signings, will take time to adapt: “This is something we work on very hard and the more we will play together in the new setup, the better that will go.”
What does the future hold for Liverpool and Mo Salah, then?
Longer term, though, the answer to how to accommodate both Ekitike and Isak increasingly appears to be without Salah, who, of course, has a contract for the next two seasons.
With Ekitike, Isak and Wirtz, a move to more of a diamond midfield with two forwards does, on paper at least, appear to be a potential plan to operate with all three new signings effectively.
And, in the meantime, Wirtz being given the freedom to drift inside from the right, as he did at Leverkusen from the left could also prove effective - although, that also raises the question of why that hasn’t been tried more from the left, with Milos Kerkez then being afforded the opportunity to overlap and provide the width on that side as he did at Bournemouth.
Liverpool are a confused team right now, and nobody appears to be suffering more than Salah. How Slot handles this challenge will be increasingly interesting.
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