Refreshed Salah is just what Slot needs in new head coach’s early days (2024)

Maybe it is the summer trim? Mohamed Salah has gone for a sharp hairstyle, eschewing his trademark long locks, and the new look goes hand in hand with how the Liverpool forward has attacked the start of the new season.

Seeing Salah score and assist in Liverpool’s first game of the Premier League campaign away at newly-promoted Ipswich Town on Saturday lunchtime was to witness a player looking fresh and quick out of the blocks.

By scoring Liverpool’s second goal at Portman Road, the Egyptian, who is commencing his eighth season at the Anfield club, set a new record of nine Premier League goals on the opening weekend of a season, taking him clear of Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer.

His 350th match for Liverpool only provided further evidence that Salah is ready for action once more and that is a particular boon for Arne Slot, the club’s new head coach. Having your star forward get off the mark so emphatically on your first proper outing in the job would have been both pleasing and reassuring for the Dutchman.

Back at the start of pre-season Slot will have hoped but not been 100 per cent certain of which Salah would have turned up at the training complex. It should be remembered that he turned 32 years old in June and his is a game that does rely on pace as well as a whole host of other talents.

Also, towards the end of last season, there was debate over whether Salah was a fading force. He scored just three goals in his last 11 appearances under Jurgen Klopp and, infamously, there was the public spat between the pair on the touchline at West Ham United in late April followed by Salah’s headline-grabbing comment of: “There will be fire today if I speak”.

That may have been a heat-of-the-battle moment as Liverpool’s treble bid faltered, but there is no doubt that Salah cut a frustrated figure for the last few months of the season. A hamstring injury picked up while playing for Egypt in the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) in January resurfaced when he returned to his club and was a jolt to a player who had been in excellent form before the winter tournament.

It meant that Salah missed the one crowning moment of Klopp’s final season at the club. Salah was forced to sit out the Carabao Cup final over Chelsea and it should not be underestimated how devastating missing that occasion would have been for the ultra-competitor and main star of the Klopp era.

The changes at Liverpool during the summer months that has impacted most departments apart from the playing squad — which has seen no additions during the transfer window — has brought about a natural reset. And Slot is a new head coach who, to an extent, has his own blank slate.

That has meant Salah has had to demonstrate his ability to someone who doesn’t know him inside out. What’s more, this has been a welcomed summer break for the Egyptian. One bonus of having Afcon during the winter is that players who feature in that tournament can dedicate the full summer to well-earned rest.

Break appears to have done Salah good

Whilst many of Salah’s club team-mates were on duty at Euro 2024 or the Copa America, he has been able to recuperate and reported back to training on the first day of pre-season. The new haircut and topping the charts in fitness testing underlined how he has used his free time.

It has been useful for Slot and his new team of coaches to have Salah at the Axa Training Centre from day one. Not only has Salah been setting the standards in training but he has helped create a positive environment for the new set-up to work in.

Salah took his strong pre-season form into the opening weekend where he genuinely looked thrilled to be out there playing; and he will aim to continue that in games against Brentford and Manchester United before the first international break of the season.

Yet there is one issue that continues to loom over the Salah-Liverpool marriage. His current contract of £350,000 per week is set to expire next summer and so far there has been no sign of a new one being drafted. Fenway Sports Group (FSG), Liverpool’s owners, are notoriously cautious about giving lucrative extensions to players in their thirties, but surely Salah is an exception.

Naturally, it is a two-way decision, and Salah may feel that one final season, assisting the new regime to bed in, is just what he wants. But, as things stand, clubs can start courting Salah after January — and for as long as the uncertainty is allowed to rumble on, it will be a talking point.

For now, Slot will not want to think about such matters. All the new head coach will want to visualise is the club’s fifth-highest goalscorer continues breaking records and looking as fresh and content as he did in Suffolk on Saturday.