Missing old pal Mane in a slow Liverpool attack

Liverpool having a poor season is neither news nor a revelation at this point but the reasons behind it are well up for debate.

The Reds have hit their halfway point of the season with just 29 points on the board and sit ninth in the table following a frustrating 0-0 draw with Chelsea last Saturday. 

Naturally, there are many talking points but there is little doubt that the club’s struggles are linked with star forward Mohamed Salah who has been unable to hit his previous lofty heights this season.

Salah played the full 90 minutes at Anfield against the Blues but struggled on the right side of the attack as he recorded his fourth Premier League game without a goal contribution for the first time in two years.

Given the fact the 30-year-old has not looked at his best all season, Sportsmail has looked at the reasons why the forward is struggling to hit his best form.

It’s not just Saturday, since the World Cup or even this season that Salah has looked a little off form. You can argue that the Egyptian has been not been his usual goal grabbing self for nearly a year.

A key moment can be attributed to the Africa Cup of Nations final last February. 

Before setting off for the competition in Cameroon, Salah was in fine form – having scored 23 goals in 26 matches across all matches during the first half of the season.

But he would face heartbreak while away with Egypt, losing the final on penalty kicks against Senegal via a shootout where he didn’t get the opportunity to take a spot-kick. To rub salt into the wound, Reds’ team-mate Sadio Mane converted the winning penalty.

But if that wasn’t bad enough, a month later Egypt played Senegal again, with the match also going to penalties with a place in the World Cup finals on the line.

This time Salah did take a spot-kick – but crucially he missed. And once again it was Mane dispatching the winning penalty to send Egypt tumbling out and Senegal to Qatar.

His form nosedived for the Reds for the rest of the season, scoring just eight goals from the remaining 25 matches following his AFCON return and just three times in 15 games after the World Cup KO.

While his numbers have improved slightly this term, 17 goals from 29 games, he still does not look as dangerous during matches. 

It was always going to look like an impossible task but trying to recreate a trio as lethal as Mane, Roberto Firmino and Salah at their peak has really had a heavy impact at Anfield.

With Firmino appearing to be past his best and Mane having been sold to Bayern Munich in the summer, it’s a transitional period for the Liverpool attack.

Liverpool were wise enough to recognise the issue though and have invested heavily, signing Luis Diaz a year ago and Darwin Nunez in the summer for a combined £135m.

But both have had misfortune. Diaz has been crocked with a knee injury since October and won’t be expected back until March, while Nunez is still finding his feet having so far failed to live up to expectations. Cody Gakpo’s arrival this month is far too soon to cast any judgement.

None of this is Salah’s fault of course but it does mean the almost telepathic understanding he had previously with Mane and Firmino is long gone and the on-field advantages it carried over has evaporated with it. – Daily Mail.