Mohamed Salah's record-breaking Champions League hat-trick for Liverpool on Wednesday against Rangers went some way to proving Gary Neville wrong, as the former Manchester United defender expressed concern over the forward's form ahead of the game.
The Reds have endured their worst start to the season for a decade in the Premier League, with two wins from their opening eight games leaving them nine places and 14 points off top-of-the-table Arsenal - who beat them 3-2 at the Emirates on Sunday. The early-season slump has been attributed to a number of different reasons, including the decision to sell Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich in the summer and failing to effectively replace him.
However, the team showed signs of their best at Ibrox in a 7-1 win, with Salah coming off the bench to dismantle a ragged opponent and net three times.
Speaking ahead of the game, Neville said those players who succeeded Mane - Luis Diaz in terms of position in the team and Darwin Nunez as this summers marquee signing - have been some of Liverpool's more encouraging performers. Salah, however, had caught the former Manchester United defender's eye for what was a notably quiet start to the season.
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“Sadio Mané [leaving] came out the blue," Neville told The Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet. "I watched Liverpool on Sunday [against Arsenal] and at Old Trafford, and people talk about the fact that Mané’s missing but actually, [Luis] Díaz, [Diogo] Jota and [Darwin] Núñez in particular were pretty decent – they were a real threat.
“The most worrying performance for me from Liverpool is the world star, the one that’s been nearest to winning all the top awards, which is Mo Salah. Those runs that he used to make all the time with Mané, I didn’t see that on Sunday at all.”
The Egyptian winger is far from the only key player to show inconsistency this season, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson all struggling. There has been concern at the lack of investment in midfield ever since the summer transfer window shut, with deadline-day loanee Arthur Melo racking up just 14 minutes of senior football in the 4-1 defeat at Napoli in September.
If this season continues in a similar vein and Liverpool do fail to make the top-four, there will be many around Merseyside demanding a summer of huge investment - something Neville has echoed.
“If you’re Liverpool’s owners and this season continues in the manner that it has done so far, and they finish outside the Champions League, Jurgen Klopp is going to want that type of statement from the owners, such as [Jude] Bellingham and [Kylian] Mbappé.”
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