Mo Salah has been Liverpool’s Egyptian King for the past eight years and there were seemingly no signs of the playmaker slowing down.
That was until this season began with the attacker well below par in a number of metrics for his club.
Salah has led the way for the Anfield giants in almost every attacking statistic since he joined in 2017 with last season in particular proving to be a stellar campaign.
Salah could have won Ballon d’Or before being beaten to it by Ousmane Dembele as his numbers helped Liverpool towards the Premier League title under manager Arne Slot.
It certainly was not the first time the Egyptian shone for the Reds and he has often outdone himself in front of goal as well as with assists for teammates as he showed his unselfish side at times.
Yet this season so far, the 33-year-old has begun to finally show his age.
How Mo Salah’s Liverpool form dip compares to last season
From 12 appearances this term so far, Salah has only found the net four times and chipped in with three assists.
Perhaps not numbers to be sniffed at for any other player in the division, but for Salah they show a severe dip in form which has coincided with five domestic matches on the spin which have ended in defeat.
Losses to Crystal Palace (2-1), Galatasaray (1-0), Chelsea (2-1) and Manchester United (2-1) forced manager Slot into a rethink against Frankfurt last week.
And Salah’s selection was part of the Dutchman’s thought process with his apparent lack of confidence manifesting itself on the pitch. He started that tie on the bench.
Salah was not involved at all against Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday as Liverpool were thumped 3-0.
Liverpool Premier League form now vs same time last season
But what does this season for Salah so far look like, exactly, compared to last year at this stage?
In terms of his club, Liverpool sit seventh in the Premier League with 15 points from a possible 27.
Not exactly miles off the leaders Arsenal, though. Seven points separate the two with Manchester City in between and just the one point ahead of the Reds.
But Bournemouth, Sunderland, Tottenham and Manchester United are all better than Liverpool so far.
An unsteady start in the top flight and definitely one that could have been improved.
Slot’s men have fallen short of their own form from last season and are four spots below where they sat just last week in 2024.
The Reds led the Premier League before and then after their win over Chelsea on October 20, 2024. So it’s clear the club are regressing.
Mo Salah goals tally
But what about on an individual level?
As mentioned previously, only four goals have been netted by the playmaker this season so far.
For a prolific attacker such as Salah, that is well short of his previous campaigns even by this point in time.
In the Champions League this campaign Salah has played three times and scored one goal in that timeframe.
Premier League this season he has been given nine run outs and he has scored three goals.
He did not feature for the club against Southampton in the Carabao Cup tie either, adding to the Palace fixture/
That is not comparable, really, to what the veteran offered last season by this stage in the campaign then.
He had featured twice in the Champions League and scored once, played eight times in the Premier League and found the net five times and he was picked in the Carabao Cup where he scored once in one against West Ham.
Mo Salah assists 2024/5 vs 2025/6 so far
Salah’s assist numbers from last year also dwarf this season’s so far and that, too, has been telling.
In his three Champions League matches last season by this point – taking into account a tie vs RB Leipzig which took place on October 23, 2024 – Salah had chipped in with two assists.
He failed to equal that against Frankfurt last week even thought he could have.
However, in the league it is a different story.
This season he has just the two assists from nine and last year by this point Salah had already registered five in the EPL.
He did not assist in the Carabao Cup last season but he scored in a 5-1 rout of West Ham during which tie he only came off the bench to play 31 minutes.
Mo Salah xG and shots per game this season vs past five seasons
A major part of the footballing landscape these days is the expected goals metric.
It is a statistic that the game’s boffins often place a dramatic amount on and that does not make for good reading for Mr Salah this season.
Across the past five seasons – some of Salah’s most prolific – he had an average of 7.77 from the opening 12 calendar fixtures from the past five seasons combined.
That has tumbled significantly this year with a 4.5 across the 12 match period of this year.
His metric has dropped 42 percent this season in xG compared to the average of the last five.
A serious dip in quality and that does not account for his shots per game this season compared to his average.
This campaign the Egyptian has not been wearing the right boots, apparently. He has had 2.33 per match this term with his average from the past five years coming in at 3.19 (from 12 games).
Season by season – from this all the way back to the 2019/20 term – shows this year has been his lowest average.
Summary of Salah’s dip this season
It is clear to see the playmaker has really struggled to be his usual creative self this season, for one reason or another.
Is it confidence? Is Salah coming to the end of his wonder years? It is unclear why, exactly.
But the general statistics and the facts do not lie.
Overall – and always in contrast to the average from his past five seasons and the 12 game timeframe – Salah has dipped drastically.
His output decline has been sharp with four goals compared to the average 9.5. A 57.9 percent drop.
His shot numbers have dropped by 27 percent at around 2.33 compared to the 27 percent he had been averaging while his shot accuracy is roughly the same at 42.9 percent compared to the previous 43.9 percent.
Salah’s xG is well below expectations while his creativity has come under fire from fans – and rightfully so.
shing below expected)
His chances created – considered by the statisticians as ‘shot creating or goal creating actions per game’ – are this season 2.58 compared to the 4.46 of the last five. That’s a loss of 42.1 percent.
But there is something to be said about Liverpool’s form in general, as we’ve mentioned, with their tactical shape possibly hurting their star man.
Salah has had an average of 35.8 touches per game this season compared to the 43 of the last five and that goes to show how stuttering the Reds have been.
