One plus one makes 11.
The proverb, of course, refers to when two individuals or entities work together, they create something greater than the sum of their parts. It further suggests that two people together are more powerful than when they are apart.
Unfortunately for Liverpool Football Club, this cannot be more true with their No 11 Mohamed Salah struggling without his other one, Trent Alexander-Arnold, who ran out his contract before leaving for Spanish giants Real Madrid in the summer.
Salah has endured a quiet start to the 2025/26 season with just two goals and two assists in eight Premier League appearances. It’s his lowest attacking metrics since joining the club in 2017.
Crucially, the swagger and confidence that has made the Egyptian king into a cult hero at Anfield since his arrival eight seasons ago has been missing.
The moment of truth arrived on Sunday. Liverpool were trailing arch-rivals Manchester United with five minutes remaining.
And despite Salah’s phenomenal success against United in past encounters, holding the record with 16 goals, and Liverpool playing towards the famed Kop End, he was hauled off by manager Arne Slot with just five minutes remaining.
It’s been a pleasure sharing a special friendship with you and playing alongside you. I wish you the best and I am sure we will meet again. @TrentAA pic.twitter.com/6AtSSEkNtm
— Mohamed Salah (@MoSalah) May 5, 2025
Liverpool fans all round the world were stunned, but his replacement Jeremie Frimpong whipped in an inch-perfect cross shortly after coming on for his Dutch countryman Codi Gakpo for what should have been the equaliser.
The only problem being that Frimpong was meant to be Alexander-Arnold’s replacement at right-back to continue supplying Salah upfront. But instead, the dreadlocked wing-back is more winger than back, and due to an early injury setback too, has not fitted into his role as yet.
Frimpong is regularly used in a more advanced role by Dutch national team manager Ronald Koeman too and was also utilised similarly by former Liverpool great Xabi Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen.
So, where does this leave Salah?
He simply hasn’t been receiving those long-ranging passes from Alexander-Arnold that set him free to dash at the opposition defences.
Now Alexander-Arnold was not the best of defenders either, let’s be honest, but his vision was second to none and his execution was equally brilliant.
Liverpool have tried to utilise Dominik Szoboszlai at right-back with the Hungarian possessing the ability to hit those long-ranging passes, but he is the Reds’ best midfielder and is needed to make a bigger impact in the middle of the park.
Without Alexander-Arnold, Salah hasn’t become a bad player overnight. He was just accustomed to a playing style that was tailormade to encourage his strengths with the best players around him to supplement it.
At 33-years-old, Salah is at a crossroads where he will need to adapt to Liverpool’s new playing style for the Premier League champions simply don’t have a player capable of filling Alexander-Arnold’s massive boots.
Youngster Connor Bradley is also still there and was expected to be the natural successor at right-back, but Slot is determined to change the way Liverpool play, especially with the arrival of German midfielder Florian Wirtz.
Slot has a couple of tough decisions to make to arrest Liverpool’s slide and he will be hoping that having to drop last season’s double Footballer of the Year is not one of them with Salah rediscovering his Midas touch sooner rather than later.
