Arne Slot’s System at Risk if Salah and Trent Leave Liverpool | OneFootball

LFC Contract Stalemate – Trent and Salah Leaving?

It’s a tentative situation at Liverpool at the moment. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah both have expiring contracts come the end of the season.

Neither look any closer to signing a contract agreement than they did at the start of the campaign.

There’s rumours of Trent being off to play in Madrid. Meanwhile, the Saudis are perpetually in a battle to land Salah.

It goes without saying that Liverpool simply cannot afford to lose either player. But the possibility of losing both would be an utter disaster for Arne Slot.

Photo: IMAGO

Trent and Mo better than ever

Even under Jurgen Klopp, Alexander-Arnold and Salah were essential cogs in the gegenpressing machine.

Klopp’s system hinged on their success.

Somehow, Slot has managed to make them even better. Under the Dutchman, the duo average less touches per 90 minutes, but make more of an impact in key attacking areas.

Below, Anfield Index will explain why the numbers show they are simply essential to Liverpool’s system at the moment.

And why it could trigger a catastrophe at Anfield if both leave come the end of the season.

Photo: IMAGO

Making a key creative impact

When it comes to big chances created in the Premier League this season, Salah and Alexander-Arnold are in the top five.

They lead the way for Liverpool. Salah has created 17 big chances, meanwhile Alexander-Arnold has 14.

In third place for Liverpool are Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai who both created seven big chances respectively, merely half of Alexander-Arnold’s total output.

This is while Alexander-Arnold has been out injured for certain periods of the season as well.

So this straightaway illustrates just how important Salah and Alexander-Arnold are when it comes to creating chances.

The underlying numbers back that up as well. Salah leads the way for Liverpool for expected assists in all competitions (0.43 per 90) followed by Alexander-Arnold (0.29 per 90).

Together, they create a combined total of 8.55 shot-creating actions per 90 in all competitions for the Reds.

That’s a whopping total, and it shows just how important and how much Slot’s system needs both of them.

Slot’s key tactical change

As mentioned above, both Salah and Alexander-Arnold overall touches have dropped off a little bit in comparison to under Klopp.

But there is one area where they are still leading the pack.

In the opposition’s attacking third, Salah leads the way for the most touches for Liverpool (853).

Interestingly, behind him the player with the next most touches is not one of the Reds’ attackers but Alexander-Arnold (629).

It’s almost 100 more touches than the next player behind him in third place in Luis Diaz (552).

Under Klopp, Alexander-Arnold was often encouraged to drop deeper, involve himself in the early build-up phase. Especially, towards the end of Klopp’s era with Pep Lijnders even instructing him to play as a ‘double six.’

But this has changed under Slot. The Dutchman has liberated him, he’s freed him up to take up more offensive positions on the pitch and the fruits of that are being felt with just how successful Liverpool have been so far this season.

Both Salah and Alexander-Arnold are unique players with the game intelligence to find and pick holes in any defence.

Slot has decided he wants to give them the ball maybe not as frequently as before but in higher volumes in the areas where they thrive best.

It’s a decision that has benefitted Liverpool, but it’s also a decision that could devastate the Reds.

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No one can replace them

Looking around the market in Europe’s top five leagues, there are only two right-wingers who have averaged more expected assists than Salah this season – Bukayo Saka and Michael Olise.

Among right-backs, Joshua Kimmich and Denzel Dumfries edge above Alexander-Arnold as possible reasonable alternatives, but no one under the age of 25 among right-backs comes even close to his numbers.

Let’s be honest, the chances of Liverpool signing Olise or Salah are zero. Kimmich is a possibility but he’s going to be 30 years old. Dumfries is 28. These are not the type of signings FSG make.

And below that, no one is even reasonably close to Salah or Alexander-Arnold.

If Liverpool have to replace them, the chances are the players coming in are not going to be as effective and as creative as the players that will have left.

Considering how important the duo has been for Slot, this would give him one of the biggest headaches of his life.

Which is why Liverpool cannot afford to lose either.