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It has been some time, but Liverpool's forward was back playing the starring role last week with a double in Casablanca that secured the Egyptian team's spot at the global tournament. The star taking the limelight yet again. Liverpool require him to keep that position.

Factors for Unsteady Showings

There are several factors why unsteady, unconvincing performances have been the recurring theme defining the team's opening to their league defense, if they achieved seven wins in a row or, before the Red Devils' visit to Liverpool's home ground on the weekend, three losses in a row. The turmoil from numerous summer changes, Arne Slot's search for his top team, Diogo Jota's tragic death; Salah has endured the effect of them all during his atypically subdued beginning to the campaign.

Sunday's Big Match

Sunday's showpiece occasion could offer the impetus for the cause of a record 16 goals in 17 outings for Liverpool against United, who are making their 100th appearance to the stadium and have not triumphed at their fierce rivals for over nine years. Salah will create the manager with another surprise issue, though, should he stay caught in the upheaval indefinitely.

Latest Form

The team's manager must have noticed the paradox of Salah's opening strike against the opponent recently. Struck directly with the outside of his left foot inside the front post, his eighth strike of the national team's qualifying effort was from an almost identical location to his big mistake versus Chelsea before the international break.

Had that right-foot effort been converted moments after the restart at Chelsea's ground we would even now be eulogising Florian Wirtz's maiden superb assist in the English top flight. Analyses into his decline and Liverpool's rare losing run might also have been postponed. Rather, Wirtz's search persists while Slot broods over a third consecutive loss on the road, a couple due to dying-minute strikes and one the result of a controversial spot-kick. Narrow differences, as he emphasized on Friday, but they do not mask larger problems.

Previous Campaign's Influence

The forward was crucial in driving Liverpool towards a tying 20th crown last season while uncertainty over his long-term plans persisted in the background. We extracted almost the maximum out of Mo this season,” said the manager when his top scorer signed a new two‑year contract in the spring. We have seen a noticeable drop-off on an personal and collective level from then. The squad, not the details of a deal, are to blame.

Statistical Decrease

His output in terms of scores and setups is lower 50% on the corresponding point last season, from a total 8 in the opening seven league games of 2024-25 to 4 (a pair of goals and two assists) this term. The count of attempts has decreased from twenty-two to twelve while efforts on goal have fallen from fifteen to five, leading to a sharp drop in shooting accuracy (not counting blocks) from 78.9 percent to 55.6%, statistics show.

A single trait that has held more steady is Salah's playmaking. With twelve key passes, versus 14 at the same stage of the previous season, his figures remain among the top in Europe and comparable in the ranks of young talents and rising stars, his juniors by 15 and thirteen years respectively.

Collective Performance

Metrics of team output will worry the coach more. Salah had 76 contacts in the opposition box in the opening seven league games of the previous term. This season's tally is 39. The numbers are symptomatic of the squad's issues in general. Only Manchester United and Arsenal have attempted more shots on goal than Liverpool this season, but Liverpool's percentage of shots from within the six-yard area is the poorest in the top flight, their ratio from outside the area among the greatest. Liverpool's proportion of efforts on goal – 28.4 percent – is as well among the lowest in the league.

During the initial phase of last season we mostly scored from an individual brilliance from one of our front three and in the second half it was mostly from a free-kick or corner,” Slot said. “Currently we haven’t had as many moments of genius and we have not found the net from set pieces. But we are nonetheless the team that from general play produces the highest expected goals opportunities.”

New Signings

They are not punishing rivals in the fashion Slot imagined when Wirtz, the French forward and Alexander Isak were signed recently, while Liverpool remain the league's equal third-top scorers. A tie on Sunday would be sufficient for Slot to attain the century of points in less games than any boss in the club's history (46). Imagine what his forward line will do when it does settle. Liverpool are still a squad of outstanding individual quality, capable of sparking and chasing any opponent for the championship, but unity is missing. This can not be attributed on the summer recruits alone.

Personal and Team Problems

Salah is not the only senior member to experience a decline, with Alexis Mac Allister regaining to match sharpness and the defender toiling. But he ends up at the center of the turmoil that has of late engulfed the club. That goes to a personal level, with Salah's sorrow over the death of Jota obvious on that poignant opening night against Bournemouth. The influence of Jota's tragedy can not be assessed nor ignored.

Tactical Shifts

In the prior campaign, he