Liverpool is in need of changes to get back into the Champions League places. Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo need to improve and Jürgen Klopp should have a plan.
It is an obvious point, given that they headed into this weekend in ninth place in the Premier League table, but Liverpool is just not quite functioning in the way that they need to at the moment.
After their draw with Chelsea, Newcastle United, one of the sides that the Reds need to overtake to reach the Champions League next season, dropped points at Crystal Palace — having not won, nor even looked like winning, themselves, though, that was hardly a cause for celebration.
There is still half a season to play but they are 10 points off the top four and have much work to do, with no part of Jürgen Klopp’s team currently in top form.
Since the goalless draw with Chelsea, some of the focus has come on Mohamed Salah, with the Reds’ star man one of a number of players that misfired at Anfield.
He had just one shot (with an xG value of 0.05) and created 0.06 expected assists with the one chance he created on Saturday. No one dribbled past an opponent more than Salah during the game, but that was only twice — a success rate of 50 per cent from the four dribbles that he attempted.
It feels harsh to pick out just one player from a match in which none of the 31 players involved did particularly well, but Salah — not least after the signing of his expensive new contract — is the man expected to drag Liverpool to victories when required.
Instead, with the Reds 10 points off the top four spots heading into Sunday’s fixtures, Salah has now gone three consecutive matches without hitting the target. Seventeen goals at this point in the season is a good return, but only seven in 23 league games is not a tally that Liverpool has grown used to Salah producing.
It would perhaps have made more sense to play him in a central role against Chelsea — at least for a spell to see if it worked. Instead, Klopp persisted for a long time with having Harvey Elliott in an unnatural position on the left and Cody Gakpo struggling to play the role he was asked in the center, where he failed to link the play.
Having Elliott on the right, Salah in the middle and Gakpo off the left would have been worth a try, at the very least. None of the three was working in the roles they were stationed in, and therefore Liverpool looked blunt every time they came forwards.
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah.
New signing Gakpo should not be judged yet, but he looked in desperate need of some time away from the three Chelsea center-backs who were able to outmuscle him with his back to goal. On the rare occasions that he did escape his marker, either another defender would snuff out the danger, or he would snatch at the opportunity and fire well over the crossbar.
Of course, there are other factors at play. Trent Alexander-Arnold was missing having sat out some training sessions during the week. He was a huge loss, even if he has not been at his best all season, and the midfield is an obvious position that needs work, with Naby Keïta failing to have much of an impact.
But Salah should still be capable of more. Whether that is via the role that he is in now (which would, in turn, take the pressure off new arrival Gakpo) or a revised attacking set-up, there is pressure on the shoulders of the Egyptian to fire Liverpool up the table in the coming weeks. Moving him, Elliott and Gakpo around, and of course adding in Darwin Núñez, could work best for them all.
