BeIN SPORTS pundit Andy Gray has pinpointed the one thing that has caused striker Mo Salah’s recent lack of form for Liverpool.
He believes that despite the forward not having the best of times in the league, the Reds would miss him massively if he was to be dropped from the team – and even added that he is capable of netting 25 goals this season.
Gray says that the first teamer has shown he has the ability this season, remarking on how his “movement is as good as ever”- but said that the one thing that has caused his dip in form is that he tries too hard to score a goal.
Time to take misfiring @MoSalah out of the #LFC team? #beINUCL pic.twitter.com/g0HBIcTMS3
— beIN SPORTS (@beINSPORTS_EN) October 3, 2018
“You cannot be at the levels he has set last year all the time. Every time he hit it last year, he hit it perfectly – this year, just a couple of degrees off. I haven’t got a problem with him, I’ve watched him and I think his movement is as good as ever, and his ambition is as good as ever,” he told beIN SPORTS.
“If there is one thing that I think he is trying to do – and I’ve been there as a centre-forward – he is maybe trying too hard right now. I think if I was Jurgen Klopp, I would just be saying ‘just relax, you’re in the team, you’re not coming out.’
“Why would you take Mo Salah out of the team? No way, he’s in the team and he stays in it. Right now I’m keeping him in the team. I think he’s a fraction anxious, and trying too hard to score a goal right now.”
OPINION
Gray is right – maybe Salah is trying too hard to score a goal at the moment. He is more than capable of replicating his form from last season, but he just does not seem to have much luck at the moment in front of goal. Many will be branding him as a “one season wonder” this campaign, but as Gray says, he needs to relax a bit, and then they goals will come. He is putting too much pressure on himself at the moment, and will only prove to be a hinderance later along the line. We all know that he is capable of scoring goals, but they will come in time. Taking him out of the team would not make any sense in the slightest and if anything, it would significantly reduce their threat up front. Salah still has the movement as Gray points out, meaning that he is still contributing to the attack despite not providing many of the goals.
