Ken Early: Liverpool’s summer changes leave Mo Salah looking lost

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah vies with Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi during the Community Shield match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Wembley Stadium, in London, on Sunday. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images

Soon after kick-off in the Community Shield, the Crystal Palace fans unleashed a fiery demonstration against the evil football authorities. T-shirts reading “UEFA MAFIA” denounced the European governing body which has demoted Palace from the Europa League to the Uefa Conference League for breaching multi-club ownership rules. Protesting that they have since resolved the alleged conflicts of interest, Palace have appealed the decision, and a verdict is expected today.

On the basis of their showing at Wembley, Palace would be strong contenders to win the Europa League and favourites for the Conference League.

Oliver Glasner named the same XI that beat Manchester City in the FA Cup final, while Arne Slot’s team included four new signings costing close to €300 million. The new Liverpool players showed flashes of brilliance, but it was Palace who looked the more coherent and dangerous team.

Palace’s Adam Wharton showed why he is currently the highest-rated Premier League midfielder not already playing for one of the richest clubs. Liverpool also had an England international central midfielder in Curtis Jones, who completed 53 of 53 passes during his time on the pitch. Wharton, though, was trying much more ambitious passes, eventually fooling Virgil van Dijk with the pass that cracked open Liverpool’s defence for Ismaila Sarr to score Palace’s second equaliser.

Wharton actually endured a difficult middle third of the game, misplacing seven passes in a row between minutes 24 and 56. It’s to his credit that he didn’t let this run affect his confidence, and he got nearly everything right in the last 30 minutes of the game.

The opening exchanges hadn’t looked so positive for Palace, as Liverpool began with an intimidating air of superiority. Jeremie Frimpong’s throw-in started a sequence of 46 passes which culminated with Hugo Ekitike scoring a superb debut goal.

“A good team goal,” Arne Slot said afterwards, suggesting the move showed the kind of creative combination play he wants Liverpool to evolve towards, compared to last season when their idea, in Slot’s surprising description, was “keep a clean sheet and create some chances in attack”. That worked well enough for them last season, but Slot believes opponents had figured Liverpool out by the end.

Ekitike’s goal came after some slick interplay with Florian Wirtz, who produced several dazzling touches during the first half. It felt as though Liverpool are not yet used to the possibilities that open up when their new No 7 receives the ball. Some team-mates seemed surprised at the speed and unexpected angles of his passes. Soon they will be making the runs, trusting that Wirtz will find a way to supply the ball.

Mohamed Salah of Liverpool is challenged by Marc Guehi of Crystal Palace at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Photograph: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Palace had equalised through Jean-Philippe Mateta’s penalty, sloppily conceded by Virgil van Dijk, by the time Frimpong showed the new qualities he will bring. The Dutch full back attacked Tyrick Mitchell down the right, got around the outside and chipped a cross that drifted unexpectedly inside Dean Henderson’s far post: 20 minutes in, Liverpool’s new signings were adjusting well.

It was a rather more established figure who was struggling to get into the game. As the half wore on, a question began to form – where is Mohamed Salah? Liverpool had dominated the ball, but their £400,000-a-week Footballer of the Year had barely been involved.

Salah had only six touches before the 40-minute mark. He was so anonymous that he might have felt almost reassured when he was called offside – “Okay, I’m not actually invisible”.

He finished the half with 12 touches, thanks in part to seven minutes of additional time. You might have expected something to change after half-time, but surprisingly the second half was even worse, with only 11 touches in all, though he also managed one shot, drilled wastefully straight at Dean Henderson after being set up by Wirtz.

Between minute 56 and minute 81, Salah’s only direct involvement in the game was a foul on Will Hughes.

Penalties offered a chance at redemption but he ballooned Liverpool’s first penalty dreadfully over the bar to crown one of his worst performances and set his side on the way to shoot-out defeat.

You can’t drop a performance like this as one of the best-paid players in the league and expect not to be criticised. Since Salah turned 33 in the summer, people will spend the next week saying he’s past it, that he has suddenly dropped off the performance cliff that lies in wait for all athletes somewhere in their 30s.

Actually it looked more like he was struggling to understand how to fit into a team that is suddenly playing on the far side of the pitch after eight years of right-sided dominance.

Liverpool's Jeremie Frimpong attempts a shot towards goal at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. Photograph: John Walton/PA Wire

Throughout Salah’s career at Liverpool the player behind him on the right flank was Trent Alexander-Arnold, one of the best passers in the game and who liked to occupy deeper positions where he generally had Salah in his field of vision.

Liverpool’s right back is now Frimpong, who might be the closest thing you can find to the complete opposite of Alexander-Arnold.

Where Trent’s game was about passing, Frimpong’s is about running; where Trent liked to stay deep, Frimpong wants to run beyond; where Trent tried to build plays, Frimpong wants to finish them. At Leverkusen he played almost as a wide receiver, running on to raking diagonal passes from the likes of Wirtz and Granit Xhaka.

Yesterday at Wembley, Wirtz displayed a clear preference for drifting to the left. It was immediately noticeable in the first half just how much of Liverpool’s play was happening down their left, where Wirtz, Cody Gakpo, Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Dominik Szoboszlai were all getting involved.

Over on the right side hardly anything was happening, and when the ball did go out there it was usually Frimpong arriving on to it. The full back finished the game with more than twice as many touches as Salah.

Salah is not used to this: since he joined in 2017, more of Liverpool’s play has gone down the right. Jürgen Klopp liked to organise the attack in two triangles on either side: units comprising the respective full backs, No 8s and wingers.

With Salah’s unit including Alexander-Arnold and first Jordan Henderson, then Szoboszlai, Liverpool’s right-sided triangle always saw a bit more of the play than the left side. Salah always had team-mates close by, giving him passes, offering options.

The left winger for most of that time, Sadio Mané, used to fume that if he got to play surrounded by the same favourable conditions as Salah, he would score just as many goals.

Mané was often comparatively left to fend for himself, but at least he had the strength and pace in those days to make things happen by himself. At 33, Salah needs team-mates around him to combine with. Only when Harvey Elliott came on in the last 10 minutes did Salah start to receive regular passes. The left-footed Elliott likes to drift to the right as much as Wirtz likes the left.

Now Salah gets to see how Mané felt all those years but the King will not put up with this uncomplainingly. If Slot doesn’t find a way to fix this, expect problems.

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