Arne Slot pinpoints biggest difference in Mo Salah performances during Liverpool drought

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Arne Slot insists he isn't concerned by the fact that Mohamed Salah is in the midst of his longest Premier League goal drought since joining Liverpool - because the attacker 'always scores in the end'.

The Reds talisman hasn't found the net in the league since scoring in the 2-0 win over Aston Villa back in November, a run of nine games either side of Salah's commitments with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Salah, Liverpool's all-time leading goalscorer in the Premier League, has never gone that long without scoring a league goal since moving to Anfield in 2017.

And Slot, who dropped the Egypt star from his starting XI earlier in the season, says the only reason Salah's current barren run is being scrutinised is because of how consistently excellent he has been for the champions. "He set his own standards and those are so, so, so high and the moment he doesn't score for a few games people are immediately surprised - that is the biggest compliment he can get," the Dutchman said on Friday.

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"With data you can use it to your advantage or disadvantage but not to use the FA Cup game - if we play a Premier League side - you could argue if that is fair. But that's the way it works: if we want to highlight something really positive we try to forget one or two games and if we want to highlight something negative we can try to forget one or two games as well.

"Three games ago he had an assist and a goal against a very good Premier League team Brighton , so that is the reality, and then you can change data and say he did not score in nine Premier League games. That is the standard he sets for himself and that is why people are surprised when things like that happen."

While Salah has struggled to replicate the sensational form that helped fire Liverpool to Premier League glory last year, Slot pointed out that he is far from the only attacker struggling to find the back of the net consistently.

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He continued: "We are used to Mo scoring a lot of goals and at this moment in time that is maybe the biggest difference in his performance and game time. But we also know this has happened before, I don't know if it happened nine games in a row but I've had these questions earlier if didn't score for three or five but I know in the end he always starts scoring again. That is the challenge he has and we have now to make sure he starts scoring again.

"He is not our only attacker at this moment in time that doesn't score as much as we are used to. The focus is totally on him because of everything he did for the club but Hugo [Ekitike] and Cody [Gakpo] haven't scored that many goals recently as well.

"It is a team thing which we have to improve. The good thing is we keep clean sheets so they don't need to score as many, although against Qarabag we scored six and scored four against Newcastle ."

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