Mohamed Salah reality should be clear as new Liverpool transfer claim emerges

It hasn't been an easy few weeks for Liverpool or Mohamed Salah. As the end of Jürgen Klopp's tenure nears, the Reds have crashed out of the FA Cup, the Europa League, and now the Premier League title race.

From being in a position to win a quadruple — as unlikely as that would have been — Liverpool is set to end the season with the Carabao Cup and a Champions League place. And despite the fact that would have been considered a step forward last summer, there are suddenly suggestions emerging of wholesale changes being required with deficiencies at the back and in the attack.

The reality, though, is that Liverpool will take a much longer-term view. The last few weeks have been painful for the Reds but the pieces that took them to within five or six games of a league title have not become bad overnight — mainly, injuries have taken their toll.

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A report from National World suggested earlier today that Liverpool is 'planning for life without Salah', with the decision said to have been made to sell the Egyptian. According to that story, sporting director Richard Hughes has decided to get rid of the forward.

Salah's recent form post-injury and the fact that his contract at Anfield only runs until 2025 — combined with knee-jerk suggestions that Liverpool needs to rip up its playbook — makes speculation inevitable. The 31-year-old is at the point in his career when there might be questions asked about his longevity and Liverpool hasn't seen the best of him for months.

While that is inarguable, in the bigger picture, the reality still remains clear. Salah has scored 24 times and assisted another 13 for Liverpool this season — and that latter number would be considerably larger had Darwin Núñez, in particular, not been so wasteful with the opportunities that he has teed up.

Salah has scored five goals in the nine Premier League matches that he has played in 2024, so even during a period in which he has clearly not been at his peak, the numbers are far from atrocious. The standards he has set himself mean he is judged completely differently to any other player.

Only Diogo Jota at Liverpool has a better goals-per-minute ratio this season than Salah does, and that is only by five minutes. Ultimately, Liverpool can't rely too heavily on the Portuguese to be fit, either. Even though recency bias might challenge that perception, Salah's injury history is largely impeccable.

Of the five forwards that Liverpool has, Salah remains the one who leads the way in terms of his reliability in front of goal and the ability to be selected. What he needs is a reset — and for those around him to take the pressure off. Had Núñez not slumped at the same time as the Egyptian and Jota not been sidelined at an inopportune moment, the chatter about his form would have been substantially reduced.

Given Salah is over 30, has recently had an injury for the first time in his Liverpool career, and will soon only have 12 months left on his contract, it is not impossible to make the argument that he could be sold this summer. Doing that, though, would be a big risk.

Cashing in on your most reliable forward at a time when there are legitimate question marks over the reliability of the other four — in terms of consistent scoring or being available — would be a major gamble. Doing so in the same summer as changing manager would only exacerbate that even further.