Danny Murphy says Mohamed Salah “needs a kick” after a stuttering start to Liverpool’s season
No one would have expected Liverpool to have such a slow and average start to the season after last season’s exploits, where the team was so close to achieving the tremendous feat of a quadruple.
Many expected Liverpool to kick on from the last campaign and go one step further but with injuries to key players added with loss of form in others (not to forget the departures), Liverpool have not looked like themselves in the first opening weeks of the 2022/23 season.
One of the major criticisms has been regarding star striker Mohamed Salah, who has found the net just two times till now this season. It is not the goal scored which is the main issue but the manner in which the Egyptian is playing which is highly concerning.
The player is seemingly not able to find himself in positions like before and his presence in the game is deteriorating. It would have been unthinkable in the previous seasons to see Salah subbed off when we are in need of goals but now, he seems wasteful in the final third and ineffective in big moments.
Former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy has had his say on the team’s current form and acknowledges that out-of-form Salah is one of the major reasons behind the slow start.
Speaking to TalkSPORT (h/t Mirror), Murphy believes that Salah due to his previous exploits along with a new contract has entered a comfort zone and needs a kick-on from the manager.
“They’ve (players) fallen into what some managers call a ‘comfort zone’.
“Salah’s another one, Salah needs a kick,” he added. “It’s nothing to do with the contract he signed but sometimes you need it
(Talking about Salah) When you’ve scored that many goals and do what he’s done sometimes you just need upstairs to say ‘come on’.”
Murphy is correct in his assessment as less competition for a spot induces complacency and looking at the form of key players in Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil Van Dijk, it shows that the players do not have a fear of getting dropped.
This is really concerning for a squad aiming to challenge all major laurels and Jurgen Klopp needs to step up his authority on the squad and demand a reaction in the upcoming games.
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If the situation does not differ, we can take a leaf out of our noisy rivals Manchester United’s books with the way they have handled complacency in senior players and have been rewarded for such an approach.
It is high time the players start taking accountability and pushing each other to reach the high standards set by them in the past seasons.
