Liverpool's problems
Two weeks ago, Liverpool were still leading the Premier League rankings, even being considered the brightest candidate for the championship, even before the match schedule enters October.
The Reds have created a five-point gap on the second-placed team - something that has only happened once in the competition's history at the start of the season.
However, no one within The Kop was really assured of that. 4 out of their 5 domestic wins were decided by goals in the 80th minute onwards. Even in the Champions League and Carabao Cup, they won thanks to goals in the 92nd and 85th minutes.
That is a scenario that cannot last forever and in reality, the opposite is happening. Since then, they have lost two consecutive Premier League games by goals in the 97th and 95th minutes. Last season, this team only lost 2 matches in the entire journey before winning the championship. In addition to the 0-1 defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League, they have lost 3 consecutive matches for the first time since 2023.
More notably, coach Arne Slot is also going through a series of 3 consecutive losses for the first time in his coaching career.
Slot is looking for a solution - a journey that had begun right before the series of failures appeared. Although he won all 7 opening matches, he still continuously experimented with the squad and adjusted tactics.
In the loss to Crystal Palace, Slot changed both the structure and approach. Against Galatasaray, he unexpectedly arranged an attacking midfielder last season, Dominik Szoboszlai, starting at right-back. Meanwhile, new signing Jeremie Frimpong - who was brought in to replace this position - was pushed higher.
And in the most recent loss to Chelsea, Bayer Leverkusen's record-breaking €125 million signing Florian Wirtz was benched.
What is Liverpool's strongest squad at the moment? How scary is that squad really? Can they play a normal match, not as dramatic as a suffocation?
Should Liverpool fans worry when their team is only 1 point behind the leader? When will Wirtz score? And will one day, the German international be able to make assists? Where is Alexander Isak? What happened to Alexis Mac Allister last summer? And is their best right-back really an attacking midfielder?
There is too much uncertainty at Anfield at the moment. But after 7 matches, at least one thing is certain. If Mohamed Salah does not soon regain his familiar top form, all other questions will be meaningless.
Mohamed Salah's decline
Last season, Liverpool had one of the best players in the world, Salah. This season, the picture is completely different.
Statically, Salah is currently between Brenden Aaronson and Daniel Ballard. Specifically, according to the Premier League's attacking efficiency data per 90 minutes after 7 rounds, Aaronson has an average of 0.33 expected goals (excluding penalties) combined with expected assists, Ballard is 0.35, while Salah has only reached 0.34.
Of course, these figures do not fully reflect reality. Salah still brings more value than that - from seriousness, influence in playing style, to the ability to stir up the opponent's defense. However, it is clear that Liverpool's attacking power this season is declining in many aspects.
In fact, only Erling Haaland can maintain his top form in the Premier League at the moment. Arsenal's right wingers, Bukayo Saka and Noni Madueke, have also only achieved the same basic performance as Salah since the beginning of the season.
However, this is Salah - one of the greatest players in the league, who has scored and assisted countless goals. Last season, Salah averaged 0.87 goals + assists per 90 minutes, and throughout his career at Liverpool, that number was 0.79 - an incredible performance.
The missed opportunity against Chelsea early in the second half seemed to be the time when the whole world began to doubt Salah's form this season. But if we only focus on that situation, it really doesn't have much meaning.
The goals will come like always. However, Salah has never been known as an absolutely effective striker.
However, the bigger problem is that Salah has only had 11 shots (excluding penalties) since the beginning of the season.
Last season, Salah had 22 shots in just his first seven games. His lowest tally at the same time in his Premier League career is 19 shots (2022-2023). Currently, that number has only stopped at 11.
Salah's total xG this season is 1.18 - down sharply from 3.31 last season. Even in his worst season at Liverpool, 2020-2021, Salah's xG after 7 matches still reached 2.59.
