Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been urged to drop Mohamed Salah after the forward's recent struggles in front of goal.
The Egyptian international put pen to paper on a new deal over the summer, keeping him at Anfield until 2025. However, after scoring in the Community Shield and the Premier League opener against Fulham last season's Premier League golden boot winner has netted just once in six outings.
Liverpool's wider form has been concerning, too, with the Reds sitting seventh in the Premier League and getting hammered 4-1 by Napoli in their Champions League opener. And now, according to former Anfield favourite Luis Garcia, dropping the star man could be the best approach.
“You can see and I’m sure that Mo Salah knows himself very well, you can see that he’s not beating players one-v-one,” Garcia told ESPN FC (via TeamTalk ). “He’s not running into the box, he’s far away from the box, too wide at times. He’s not close to the box where he’s very dangerous.”
Salah has scored in none of Liverpool's last four games, drawing a blank even as Klopp's team beat Bournemouth 9-0 in the league. While the weekend game against Wolverhampton Wanderers was postponed, the 2019 Champions League winners are back in European action on Wednesday with the visit of Ajax.
Garcia suggested Salah needed a rest against Napoli, with the Serie A side racing into a 3-0 half-time lead before holding out for the three points. And, while the Egyptian has played every minute in the league, he was withdrawn after an hour in Naples.
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“It’s very important that the players understand that it’s very difficult to play 63, 70 games that they played last year," Garcia added. “There are going to be rotations because there’s a World Cup in between and some players are going to need a rest.”
While Salah and fellow forward Luis Diaz won't feature at the World Cup, with Egypt and Colombia failing to qualify, other teammates will be involved for their respective countries. This could prompt even more rotation in the months leading up to the start of the international tournament in November.
The former Roma forward came close to delivering a late winner in the Merseyside derby, only to be denied by the woodwork. After the goalless draw against Everton, Klopp was asked about his star man spending more time out wide than last season.
"No, it’s not more than other seasons or whatever, I’m not sure what you see there," the manager said. We want to have Mo there in this position but we want to have Mo, and we always had him, more often in central positions as well.
"I don’t think in the season he is too often wide, maybe today in a few moments yes. But he could have scored again in the last minute pretty much."
