We all knew the day would come when Liverpool had to loosen the grip of building everything around Mo Salah. The surprise isn’t that the transition is happening, it’s that it’s felt so abrupt and, at times, so avoidable. If your main attacking reference point is struggling, persisting with the same patterns doesn’t just blunt you going forward, it leaves you exposed when the ball turns over.
When the ‘give it to Mo’ plan stops working
The gripe here isn’t “Salah is finished” or any of that nonsense. It’s more basic: if a player’s touch is going, if the timing is off, and if he’s not quite got that half-yard to protect the ball in the channel, then forcing play into him becomes a habit that hurts you. You end up funnelling attacks into traffic and inviting counters straight back down your throat.
That’s what it can look like when you keep using one man as the creative fulcrum even when the evidence is pointing the other way. The ball goes wide, the opponent is already set, and suddenly we’re chasing our own pass. And if the wide forward isn’t contributing enough without the ball, you can feel the knock-on effect: the full-back gets overloaded, the midfield has to shuffle across, and your press loses its bite.
Slot’s big call: selection and standards
The argument is that Arne Slot should’ve shown more courage earlier. Not out of spite, not to “make a point”, but because selection is supposed to reflect standards. If you’re asking everyone else to run, counter-press, and move the ball on quickly, then passengers can’t be indulged, even if they’re legends.
And to be fair, there’s a reasonable case that dropping Salah changes the feel of the side. It can free up the tempo, spread responsibility, and stop us defaulting into one predictable route. Whether it’s coincidence or not, the claim is we’ve been unbeaten since he was left out, and supporters will naturally latch onto that when the team looks a bit more balanced.
A role still exists, just not the automatic one
This doesn’t have to be an ugly ending. Salah can still matter here, massively, if he wants it. But it might be a different job: shorter bursts, clearer instructions, and an “impact sub” role that asks him to be ruthless rather than carry the whole attack for 90 minutes.
That also means building through other names. If Wirtz and Ekitike are to be the new focal points, then the challenge is making Liverpool less dependent on one outlet and more of a collective threat. Truth is, that’s how you protect a squad from ageing curves, dips in form, and opponents who’ve spent years learning how to smother Plan A.
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