Mohamed Salah Scout Report At Liverpool 2025/2026: Why Is Mo Salah Producing Less & How Can Arne Slot Fix It? – Player Analysis

Liverpool return from the international break on a three-match losing streak and now trail Arsenal by one point in the title race.

This summer, they underwent a squad overhaul, bringing in Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, and Alexander Isak.

Perhaps the most significant signing was securing Mohamed Salah to a new contract with the club.

The Egyptian is coming off an incredible season, during which he scored 34 goals and dished out 23 assists.

This season, though, it’s been tough sledging because he’s only scored three goals and has three assists in nine appearances across all competitions.

In fact, when you dive deeper into his numbers, you’ll see that everything is down across the board.

That begs the question: What has changed this season for Mo Salah?

In this scout report, we’ll answer that question in terms of his role under Arne Slot tactics, look at some of the numbers between seasons, and consider what potential tactical changes for Liverpool could get the 33-year-old back to his form from last season.

Mohamed Salah Role Change

Last season, Salah was Liverpool’s main goalscoring threat.

He is the one who took a majority of their shots and was the focal point of their attack.

From his heat map below, you can see that his main objective was to receive the ball out wide and move it into the penalty area, with a significant amount of time spent on the right-hand side of the 18-yard box.

Mohamed Salah Heat Map 2024/2025

That has changed this season because, as you can see from his heat map, he spends a lot less time in the 18-yard box and more time hugging the touchline.

Mohamed Salah Heat Map 2025/2026

There are several reasons why this is happening.

First, Liverpool have the great problem of having too much quality in their attack, but accommodating all of them is proving challenging.

With the signing of Florian Wirtz, the do-everything attacking midfielder who gets on the ball, there is less need to run the attack through Mohamed Salah.

In addition to Wirtz, Ekitike is another person who can drop deep in build-up when he is in the squad.

Second, because Wirtz and Ekitike like to occupy the left half-space, more of Liverpool’s attacks have come down the left side of the pitch.

That means Salah is tasked more with providing width on the right rather than being the focal point of the attack.

That is why his heat map shows that he spends more time near the touchline than in the penalty area.

Another aspect of Liverpool having more of their attacks coming down the left is that Trent Alexander-Arnold is no longer in the squad.

Last season, no Liverpool player completed more progressive passes than Alexander-Arnold from his right-back position, with most of them going to Salah.

This has meant that all of his numbers have taken a nosedive, as shown in the data below.

Mohamed Salah Data Comparison

When you look at the data, the simplest answer to why Salah’s goal production has gone down is that he’s taking fewer shots.

All stats are per 90 minutes

As you can see, his number of shots per 90 minutes has been almost cut in half from what it was last season.

That is largely because he is not the focal point of the Reds‘ attack and because the shots have been spread around the Liverpool squad.

You’ll also see that the number of touches in the penalty area has also basically been cut in half.

This supports what we see in his heat map above: that his role is now to provide width.

That creates central space for others like Florian Wirtz, Alexis Mac Allister, and Hugo Ekitike.

It is also worth noting that a significant number of Salah’s goals last season came from penalties.

Of his 34 goals, 11 came from the penalty spot, which will naturally increase not only his total goals but also his xG per 90.

In fact, if you removed all penalties last season, Salah’s xG per 90 minutes would have only been 0.49, which was sixth best in the Premier League.

Naturally, if you aren’t getting a penalty once every four matches like he was last season, the level of production is naturally going to decrease.

How To Get Mohamed Salah More Involved

I think there is a pretty simple solution to getting Mohamed Salah more involved in the attack, rather than the obvious one of giving him more of the ball.

Starting Alexander Isak up top is that solution because it will provide more balance to their attack across the board.

The image below is from Liverpool’s 1-0 win against Burnley.

I noticed that Ekitike, Mac Allister, and Wirtz all want to occupy the same area of the pitch, which allows Liverpool to create an opening.

However, nobody is attacking the last line of defence.

Alexander Isak can drop deep, but he is more of a traditional number nine compared to Hugo Ekitike, who wants to make runs off the opponent’s back line and will also occupy the attention of both centre-backs.

That will allow Salah more opportunities to receive the ball in space and compete with the opposing centerback in a one-on-one match like he did last season.

The other aspect that I think is out of Salah’s control is how teams defend against Liverpool.

Last season, regardless of whether teams would press Liverpool’s build-up or not, Arne Slot was adamant that his team would play aggressive balls over the top.

That would allow Salah to face the full-back one-on-one, a battle he is likely to win more often than not.

Take a look at this goal against Southampton as an example.

Because Liverpool’s attack is of such high quality, teams are not allowing Liverpool to get into these types of 1-v-1s or even letting them play in transition as much as they would like.

When you look back and see how Mohamed Salah scored a large chunk of his goals last season, it was primarily in transition.

Once Liverpool win the ball, he pushes forward and more into the right half-space channel, as you see below, to allow him a perfect angle to score with his dominant left foot.

Now, compare that to his goal against Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Champions League this season.

Look at the starting place where he receives the ball to start the attack.

To get Salah more involved in the attack, Liverpool should have a more balanced attack.

I think one of two things needs to happen to get a more balanced attack.

Either Alexander Isak needs to start up top to provide more balance and pose a threat of running in behind to occupy the centerbacks, or Florian Wirtz needs to start operating more in the right half-space as opposed to the left half-space.

If Florian Wirtz starts to shade more to the right half-space in the same way Martin Ødegaard does for Arsenal to combine with Bukayo Saka, Liverpool could create both space and get Salah into more 1-v-1s closer to the goal.

Conclusion

The main question I think we have to answer is whether Liverpool needs Mohamed Salah to produce the same level as he did last season.

I say not necessarily because if we go back to last season, Liverpool primarily played with Diogo Jota or Luis Díaz as a false nine.

Now that Liverpool have Isak, Ekitike, and Wirtz, does it make sense for Salah to occupy a more central position or be a key cog in the tactical system to stay wide, stretch the opposition, and create space centrally for those players?

Those players I mentioned have the ability to provide elite-level production in front of the net, so it’s not a must that Salah scores 20+ goals this season.

There is also a case to be made that Slot is still trying to figure out how to make all of Liverpool’s new attacking pieces work properly.

Liverpool last season averaged 2.16 xG per 90 minutes, and that number has dropped to 1.56 this season.

With only 10 matches, the sample size is small, so patience is required with Liverpool.

If teams continue to sit deep and not allow Liverpool to break in transition as much as they did last season, you’ll continue to see a dip in Mohamed Salah’s numbers.

At the end of the day, as long as Liverpool are maintaining the same level of expected goals, shots, and most importantly, points, Mohamed Salah’s goal tally isn’t going to matter.