Salah’s performance levels have dropped – and Lineker thinks he knows the real reason why

Gary Lineker’s New Theory on Why Mohamed Salah is Struggling With Liverpool This Season

Gary Lineker has an interesting theory about why Mohamed Salah is struggling for Liverpool this season. The Egyptian king enjoyed his best-ever campaign last term, breaking the Premier League record for goal contributions with 29 goals and 18 assists in 38 appearances. He was so good, in fact, that many felt he was robbed of a Ballon d’Or.

His return is still respectable on paper, but the bigger concern is his dwindling influence on games. Once the heartbeat of Liverpool’s attack, Salah now looks a shadow of his former self. Lineker thinks he knows the reason why – and it’s not simply Father Time catching up with him.

Gary Lineker’s Theory About Why Mo Salah Is Struggling



Needless to say, Salah is also feeling the effects of the squad’s growing pains at the start of this season, with so many new faces still needing to familiarise themselves with the club before the Reds can really kick on under Arne Slot. Both Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz are among those yet to live up to their hefty price tags.

Lineker, however, believes the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back is costing Liverpool dearly. Slot has already tried three different players in his place – Conor Bradley, who was hooked at half-time against Chelsea, Jeremie Frimpong, and makeshift defender Dominik Szoboszlai. Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, he explained (watch below):

“I think they’re really missing Trent. People will go on about ‘oh, defensively’ but what he gives you offensively is impossible to replace. There is not another player I can think of in world football who plays that position the way he does offensively. I also think Mo [Salah] is missing him, that connection that they had.”

“Yes, sometimes they did get exposed in behind, but they had someone who would cover. It was Szoboszlai or Jordan Henderson before that,” the former Match of the Day host continued.

“You’ve got to say he’s worth his weight in gold going forward, and I always used to say, ‘stop worrying about him making the tiny mistake defensively’ because what he gives you the other way is just incredible.”



It wouldn’t be outlandish to suggest Trent also misses Liverpool. Since joining Real Madrid for £10 million at the start of the summer – just a month before his contract at Anfield expired – he has slipped behind Dani Carvajal in the pecking order and now finds himself out of the reckoning in England squads, with fewer than 10 months until Thomas Tuchel leads the Three Lions into the 2026 World Cup.

GIVEMESPORT Key Statistic: With 64 in 259 Premier League appearances, Trent Alexander-Arnold holds the record for most assists by a defender in the competition’s history.

Still, the sky isn’t falling for either party just yet, with time to turn things around. For Liverpool, that rings especially true. While rival supporters continue to stir up talk of a collapse, the Reds sit second in the Premier League, just a point behind Arsenal, and had already strung together a seven-game winning streak earlier in the campaign.

Worryingly for those around them, you’d hazard a guess that they are only going to get better, starting on October 19 with a home game against arch-rivals Manchester United.

Football