Really good look at Salah this season
https://statsbomb.com/2019/03/evaluating-mohamed-salah/
That’s interesting, think someone else also flagged it earlier in the thread - thanks to you both!
When he was apparently going through a tough spell at the start of this season i did mention how this was to be expected. The article above shows how hes getting less shots away from his most lethal area - something I noticed at the start of the season. What it doesn’t really talk about is why.
He was one of the most high profile and dangerous attackers in world football last season. This season defences have been a lot tougher on him and making sure they shut down that area of the pitch a lot more aggressively when he’s on the prowl. It’s visibly a tougher physical challenge for him this season - of course, every big club has access to the stats which show where he was the most lethal - getting into the box from the right side (his right facing goal) and on his left foot to shoot at goal.
Managers and coaches and defences focused a lot more on shutting that area of the pitch down for him and they’ve obviously made it harder for him because of the extra physical attention players at his level always get. He responded to the physical side remarkably - he’s strong and quick and has the mentality to go into that battle and win.
I think Klopp responded to it a bit by freeing him up more and focusing on leading the line (something he was doing by the end of last season too to be fair) and looking for those spaces through the last defender.
He’s doing great in my opinion - despite the lack of as many goals, he’s still scored at a great rate and by being able to still score goals with all that extra attention, it’s freed up space elsewhere. Mane’s really grabbed that opportunity and he’s now playing at such a high level, he’ll also start getting more focus.
Salah will carry on scoring, this handful of games has been a bit of a blip but as long as we carry on scoring it’s fine.
As teams adapt to our style more and more, and shut down the spaces/situations we attack so aggressively, we’ll need to continue responding with more creativity in how we set up.
That’s where I think 2 attack minded number 8s or 1 attack minded 8 and a 10 is key to the whole thing at the moment (everywhere else on the pitch we’re actually golden!) To have that attacking drive from midfield again will again push the opponent’s defensive focus around - all of a sudden you have Salah, Mane, Firmino and 2 other players from deep who can also drive the attack forward. Lallana gave us the perfect example of why it’s an important trait for a team to have last week. We have Ox on his comeback trail (has been a long 12 months...) and Keita to get up to speed. A creative number 10/8 hybrid in the summer would be good (Shaqiri did a good job for us in that role, although hasnt played much at all for some reason) to add to the roster. Should get Coutinho back in. I also like the idea of him coming back home and operating at a world class level in a Red shirt beaming ear to ear. Good example to the rest of the squad, some of whom will surely be considering moving to a Barca/Real Madrid at some point if not already. Winning the CL/PL double would also do it to be fair - playing in the best team/club to be at at the moment and all that.
