Mohamed Salah the clear reality for Liverpool after a cryptic message and a hint on the transfer decision

The 2023/24 term was a tale of two halves for Mohamed Salah, who finished as Liverpool’s top scorer for the seventh consecutive season.

The Egyptian has been at his best unplayable for large areas, but has also had to deal with one of his biggest injury setbacks since joining from Roma in 2017.

A defence-splitting assist on the opening weekend at Chelsea for Luis Diaz was sublime before back-to-back goals in home wins against Bournemouth and Aston Villa took their toll. A classy cameo off the bench in the Europa League against LASK also brought a goal and it was a run-out that oozed the kind of arrogance that suggested Salah knew he was far too good for Europe’s secondary competition.

A brace at Brighton helped earn a 2-2 draw before the first game back since the resulting international break saw Salah hit a couple more in the Merseyside derby triumph at home to Everton.

End of Season Ratings:

Alisson Becker

Trent Alexander-Arnold

Ibrahima Konate

Luis Diaz

Cody Gakpo

Darwin Nunez

Harvey Elliott

Goals in convincing home wins against Brentford and Nottingham Forest followed before the crucial tie at Crystal Palace in December. That 2-1 win, courtesy of Harvey Elliott’s late strike, felt significant at the time given the difficulty of the game and, after another effort against West Ham, helped secure a place in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup before Salah to score one of his best of the season. in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Anfield.

New Year’s Day, however, was the date that changed the course of Salah’s season. A brace at home in a 4-2 win over Newcastle United was the striker’s 17th and 18th of an increasingly productive campaign, but it would be his last start at Anfield for three months in the Premier League League. It was never the same.

A hamstring problem picked up for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations later that month led to a clash between club and country as Liverpool moved quickly to bring their prized asset back from the Ivory Coast to follow his rehabilitation more closely. Egypt contested the decision but the Reds were willing to send him back to AFCON if the Pharaohs were still involved by the time he was ready.

Their subsequent exit at the hands of DR Congo eased any lingering tension, but Salah’s season remained marred. Another eye-catching cameo from the bench came with a goal at Brentford, but the day itself proved costly for Jurgen Klopp, who saw his goalscorer suffer a recurrence of the problem alongside setbacks for Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota. It meant Liverpool would head to Wembley for the League Cup without 11 first-team players, including Salah.

At the time it was pointed out that the problem was simply muscle fatigue, but it forced him to miss the final, with the club fearing that any real involvement could lead to a longer-term concern. As a result of this problem, he was ruled out to start a vital visit of Manchester City, with Elliott selected ahead of him for the 1-1 draw on 10 March.

Salah’s next start, in fact, came in the 6-1 thrashing of Sparta Prague, with the Reds already 5-1 up from the first leg. That was two-and-a-half months after that January 1 triumph against Newcastle, and while they held on admirably in his absence, the lingering effects of a damaging injury list were felt later.

Salah scored a late penalty in a 2-2 draw at Manchester United but his influence began to wane as Klopp’s side turned in an abject April that dashed any hopes of further silverware alongside the Cup Carabao. The high point for Salah himself came when he was involved in a public falling out with Klopp, in which he prepared to come on as a substitute in the 2-2 draw with West Ham later that month.

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“There will be fire if I speak today,” Salah said when asked to talk about the ECHO incident after the match, which was a cryptic remark that led to much further speculation. The clash with Klopp was later downplayed by the manager and Salah looked much more like himself when Liverpool put in a spirited performance in a 4-2 dismantling of Tottenham at the start of May.

Salah looked a man on a mission to finish the campaign with a goal in the last game against Wolves, but he was unable to overcome the reserves in Klopp’s final game in charge. It ended 2-0 to complete a term that was a marked improvement on what preceded it. Twenty-five goals in total take him to 211 now for the club, but the final weeks of the campaign have generated increasing buzz about sub-par performances and ordinary results.

In many ways, the No.11 may still find dissenting voices due to his otherworldly 44 goals in his maiden campaign, and there is also some merit in the school of thought that players over 30 are written off too quickly when a crisis. in shape inevitably arrives.

Salah, who turns 32 this month, may be suffering from that particular judgmental tendency as he approaches the final 12 months of his Liverpool contract, but 18 in total have left him short of the 20-goal barrier. goals for the fifth time at Anfield. and will head into the Arne Slot era as the Dutchman’s most reliable source of goals.

The end-of-season social post, just hours after Slott was confirmed, was proof enough at this stage that there will be no turmoil regarding Salah this summer and the new head coach at Anfield is, without no doubt eager to work with such an exalted scorer.

Rating at the end of the season: 8