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It has been a period, but Mohamed Salah reappeared taking on the starring role recently with two goals in Casablanca that sealed the Egyptian team's spot at the 2026 World Cup. The star taking center stage once more. The Merseyside club need him to remain there.

Causes for Inconsistent Showings

We see many reasons why unsteady, unimpressive performances have been the common thread characterizing the team's opening to their championship defense, whether they recorded seven wins in a row or, prior to the Red Devils' visit to Liverpool's home ground on Sunday, a losing run. The disruption from numerous offseason moves, Arne Slot's quest for his top team, the late forward's loss; the winger has experienced the effect of them all during his atypically low-key opening to the campaign.

Sunday's Big Match

Sunday's key fixture could offer the catalyst for the source of a impressive 16 goals in 17 games for the club against Manchester United, who are making their 100th visit to Anfield and have not triumphed at their archrivals for almost a decade. The attacker will pose Slot with a further unexpected problem, though, if he remain lost in the disruption indefinitely.

Latest Performance

The team's boss likely recognized the irony of Salah's initial score against Djibouti in midweek. Struck directly with the exterior of his stronger foot into the close post, Salah's eighth score of the national team's qualifying effort came from an almost identical position to his costly miss versus Chelsea before the break for internationals.

If that shot with his right been scored shortly after the resumption at Stamford Bridge we would still be celebrating the new signing's first superb assist in the English top flight. Analyses into Salah's decline and the team's infrequent defeat streak might also have been delayed. Rather, Wirtz's search persists while the coach broods over a third consecutive defeat away, a couple inflicted by late goals and another the outcome of a controversial spot-kick. Fine lines, as Slot reiterated on recently, but they cannot hide larger problems.

Last Season's Contribution

Salah was key in driving Liverpool towards a record-equalling 20th championship the prior campaign while speculation over his career persisted in the background. “We brought almost the utmost out of Salah that campaign,” said the manager when his main attacker signed an extension in the spring. There has been a clear drop-off on an individual and team level since. The squad, not the details of a deal, are responsible.

Performance Decline

The 33-year-old's production in terms of scores and setups is lower half on the corresponding stage last season, from a total 8 in the initial seven fixtures of last season to 4 (two goals and a couple of assists) the current campaign. His number of shots has fallen from 22 to twelve while efforts on goal have dropped from 15 to five, contributing to a sharp decline in shot accuracy (excluding blocks) from 78.9% to 55.6%, figures show.

A single trait that has held more steady is Salah's playmaking. With 12 opportunities made, against fourteen at the same stage of last campaign, his numbers are among the top in the continent and up in the group of young talents and rising stars, his juniors by fifteen and thirteen years each.

Team Display

Metrics of team performance will worry the coach further. He had 76 touches in the opposition penalty area in the first seven league games of the previous term. This season's total is thirty-nine. The stats are symptomatic of the squad's problems as a whole. Just United and Arsenal have taken a greater number of attempts on goal than Liverpool now, but Liverpool's proportion of attempts from within the six-yard area is the lowest in the Premier League, their share from outside the area among the highest. Liverpool's rate of efforts on goal – 28.4 percent – is also among the weakest in the competition.

“In the first half of last season we mainly found the net from an individual brilliance from a forward and in the later stage it was mostly from a dead ball,” the manager said. “Now we haven’t had as many sparks of quality and we have not found the net from dead balls. But we are nonetheless the team that from open play creates the most quality opportunities.”

New Signings

They aren't punishing foes in the fashion Slot envisaged when Florian Wirtz, the French forward and Alexander Isak were brought on board this summer, while Liverpool remain the division's equal third-top scorers. A tie on Sunday would be enough for Slot to achieve the 100-point total in fewer games than any boss in the club's past (forty-six). Imagine what his offense will do when it clicks. The side are still a squad of outstanding talent, able to starting and reeling in any opponent for the championship, but cohesion is absent. That can not be attributed on the recent arrivals by themselves.

Individual and Team Problems

The player is not the sole key member to experience a dip, with Alexis Mac Allister regaining to match sharpness and the defender struggling. But he ends up at the center of the disruption that has recently enveloped the club. That extends to a personal level, with Salah's sadness over the death of Jota evident on that heartfelt season opener against Bournemouth. The effect of his loss can neither be quantified nor overlooked.

Strategic Changes

Last season, he