Arne Slot admits he is not used to seeing Mohamed Salah miss chances, but expects the Liverpool star to rediscover his scoring touch soon.
Salah has not found the back of the net for Liverpool since the 3-2 win over Atletico Madrid in the first League Phase fixture of this season’s Champions League, a run that stretches six games across all competitions.
The forward has had many opportunities to end his goal drought recently, particularly in the 2-1 loss to Manchester United last weekend and after coming on as a substitute as the Reds returned to winning ways against Eintracht Frankfurt on Wednesday.
However, Salah uncharacteristically failed to take either chance and came in for criticism from some Liverpool supporters on social media for choosing to shoot instead of passing to an unmarked Florian Wirtz against Frankfurt.
In response, the Egyptian then appeared to remove all references to Liverpool from his bios on social media platforms X and Instagram, sparking wild suggestions of a cryptic hint regarding his ‘unhappiness’ at Anfield.
Slot was quizzed about Salah’s form in the pre-Brentford press conference on Friday morning and insisted he is not worried about the 33-year-old’s goal drought continuing for much longer.
“I don’t know if it is sharpness or not, it is so difficult for me to say why this is, Slot told reporters. “I could come up with a few reasons which I am not sure if that is the reason, but I think in general in football players miss chances and Mo is a human being as well.
“We are not used to him missing chances, let a alone a few games in a row but these things can happen. What could have to do with it, I have no clue if it does but I could come up with it easier maybe to finish a chance when you are 3-1 up than if you are 1-0 down.
“But maybe that is completely not true for him. I think the main thing is that Mo has always scored goals for our club and the last thing I worry about is Mo starting to score goals again because that is what he has done his whole life and that is what I expect him to do in the upcoming weeks and months for our club.”
Slot did address claims that the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold during the summer may have had an impact on Salah’s form with the winger having to adapt to a succession of right-backs.
"It has been a difficult moment for all of us," Slot added. "No one is used to losing, for all the players that have played here for so many years, and even for the new players as well because we started the season with seven wins.
"Maybe his whole Liverpool player he played with Trent, so it could (be that). But he's been in promising positions often enough to score goals, maybe with Trent even more.
"But in general, if you have quite a few changes in the summer you have to find new connections. Mo is no exception to this."
