Mohamed Salah’s Dominik Szoboszlai Declaration Exposes His New Liverpool Reality

Arne Slot weighed in on the debate with an intriguing insight into Salah’s new role.

Mohamed Salah (left) assisted Dominik Szoboszlai’s goal against Brighton. | Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Getty Images

Mohamed Salah accepted his own waning status as Liverpool’s talisman when he admitted that the club’s success this season “depends” on Dominik Szoboszlai.

The all-action midfielder notched another goal during what is evolving into one of the great individual seasons of the Premier League era. Amid Liverpool’s collective struggles, Szoboszlai has shone, finding the net for the 10th time this term with the second goal in a 3–0 FA Cup win over Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday evening.

Salah teed up the fizzing drive which his teammate blasted beyond Jason Steele before scoring himself with a penalty in the 68th minute to complete the comfortable stroll. Yet, for all the acclaim which his own display inspired, the 33-year-old turned the spotlight firmly on Szoboszlai.

“I think a cup run depends on his [Szoboszlai’s] performances,” Salah admitted when questioned about Liverpool’s FA Cup aspirations by TNT Sports post-game. “We rely on him so much. This season he is one of the best players in the world.”

For so much of Salah’s near nine years on Merseyside, he has been Liverpool’s member of the global elite who carries the greatest weight of responsibility when it comes to the club’s triumphs. By his own admission, that is no longer the case.

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Arne Slot Highlights New Strengths of Salah

Mohamed Salah looked spry on Saturday evening. | Darren Staples/AFP/Getty Images

Liverpool boss Arne Slot had no qualms with Salah’s praise of Szoboszlai. “I think there are a lot of very good to elite football players in the world, but I definitely agree with Mo that Dom is one of them,” he mused in his post-match press conference.

When it came to the attributes of Liverpool’s fading star, Slot looked past Salah’s goals and assists. “It is very nice to have him on the scoresheet again, but what I like the most is he’s scoring goals—you can almost expect that—but he also helps the team a lot defensively and that is something very positive,” the Dutch boss beamed.

Salah’s lack of defensive work ethic has been a sticking point this season.

Slot deliberately spared his ageing forward any excessive tracking back to keep him primed for attacking thrusts. That gamble paid off spectacularly last term as Salah fired Liverpool to their second-ever Premier League title. “As long as you rest me defensively, I will provide offensively,” was the winger’s message to Slot.

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Mohamed Salah vs. Dominik Szoboszlai This Season

Statistic (All Comps)	Mohamed Salah	Dominik Szoboszlai
Position(s)	Right wing	Central midfield, right back
Appearances	27	35
Goals	7	10
Assists	8	7
Club Player of the Month Award	0	3

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Yet, once the goals and assists dried up for Salah over the first half of the current campaign, he became a defensive liability. Marc Cucurella explicitly highlighted the Egypt international as an area of weakness which Chelsea targeted to defeat Liverpool in October.

As a stack of rival teams bounded down the same unguarded avenue to Liverpool’s goal, Slot was forced to drop Salah. The pair managed to reconcile only for the Africa Cup of Nations to delay his return to action. Since being welcomed back into the fold, there has been a marked difference in the winger’s focus.

During the first half of the campaign, Salah won the ball back 2.7 times per 90—that ratio has cranked up to 3.5 since AFCON. He is having fewer touches of the ball but more in the penalty area, paring back his game to the areas of most consequence. Across his seven matches back in the first team, Salah has scored twice and teed up his teammates on four occasions, happily dropping back into the role of support act rather than leading light.

As much as Szoboszlai holds the key to Liverpool’s trophy ambitions this term, Salah will still have plenty of say in the club’s successes.

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