This week’s Blood Red column assesses the current situation of Mohamed Salah and why Arne Slot has an obvious, short-term solution at his disposal
When Arne Slot sent on Federico Chiesa to save Liverpool against Sunderland on Wednesday night, the timely intervention that eventually came from the Italian was not quite what had been hoped for. Rather than fire in another late goal or create a timely assist, Chiesa, this time, found himself chasing down Wilson Isidor from the halfway line before ensuring he was in the right spot to deny a dramatic winner for the Black Cats as he cleared off the line.
Defeat, particularly for Slot, was unthinkable against Regis Le Bris’s side and had Chiesa not been alert and willing to chase back, the latest post-match inquest might have reflected even less favourably on an embattled head coach, whose penchant for game-changing alterations has largely deserted him this term, certainly in more recent weeks at least.
Once more, in an effort to rescue a victory, the head coach piled on the attacking players and saw the structure of the team suffer as a result and had Chiesa not raced back after goalkeeper Robin Roefs had put Isidor clean through on goal after successfully defending a corner, Liverpool would be staring down the barrel of another damaging home defeat.
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The fear factor and mystique which Anfield has so often been shrouded in for those who visit as the opposition has faded in recent weeks. The Reds have not won at home for over a month now and have already frittered away more points in front of their own supporters than they did across the entirety of last season. Their last three games there has seen them beaten by a scoreline of 2-8.
If the venue is inhibiting any set of players right now, it is those who occupy the home dressing room, but Chiesa, with his energetic style, bucks the trend currently. The forward may yet to have truly rediscovered the sort of form he displayed when starring for Italy in their successful European Championship campaign over four years ago, but there’s a reason the likable attacker has his terrace anthem sung with such gusto every week.
Not since his classy volley against Bournemouth in mid-August was it belted out as heartily as it was on Wednesday night after he had preserved a point with his clearance, and at a time when Mohamed Salah has been dropped from the team, the solution to that particular conundrum, even if it is only temporary, is staring Slot in the face.
It’s understandable, to an extent, why Slot’s call to keep Salah in reserve in back-to-back Premier League games has become such a talking point. The Egyptian is only outscored in club history by Roger Hunt and Ian Rush and at the age of 33, so many outside the Anfield bubble are searching for clues that suggest he is a player whose best days are firmly behind him.
Each ordinary performance or failure to light games up is viewed as further evidence of a star on the wane and while it is more than likely too premature to write off one of the game’s true greats, Slot must tune himself out to the noise around Salah right now and one of the most salient points on the topic was made Leeds United boss Daniel Farke on Friday.
“Yes (I’m worried about a backlash) because he’s a world-class player with world-class numbers,” Farke reflected. “When such a player has a difficult period, it’s always pretty dangerous because the more games without the goal or without an assist, the more likely it is that you will score then or assist. Hopefully the dry spell lasts one more game.”
Farke was not simply paying lip-service to Salah’s past glories but a more pressing issue for all concerned is that the talisman now has just three games to go until he jets off to Morocco with his Egypt colleagues for the Africa Cup of Nations.
The Pharaohs’ fortunes at AFCON may see Salah away from club duty until late January and the short-term plan for his Liverpool absence is more important now than establishing a longer term one for when he eventually calls time in England.
It’s why using Chiesa in a more prominent role makes sense for now. His infectious work ethic won’t hurt a confidence-shot team who are still emerging from a harrowing two months that has threatened to blow their entire campaign off course.
Already this season, Chiesa has scored a decisive goal against Bournemouth, levelled at Crystal Palace and grabbed an assist against Manchester United. For a player who has played just 143 minutes in the Premier League, it is a significant return at a time when the side generally look laboured and bereft of ideas in the final third.
With the jet-heeled and Jeremie Frimpong still absent, Chiesa represents the best alternative to Salah on the right side of the attack to help bring the best from Alexander Isak, who needs better and more regular service if he is to begin paying back his enormous transfer fee.
Chiesa may not necessarily have been a blue-chip addition when he was signed in the dying embers of the 2024 summer window on account of a cut-price fee and a hope that he may regain his once lofty reputation.
But, for now at least, he should be considered the obvious choice for Slot as a Salah-less period starts to come into focus.
