Mohamed Salah was one of the first players out of the Liverpool dressing room after Sunday’s win at Nottingham Forest.
Asked if he was keen to speak, the Egypt striker kindly declined and smiled as he made his way through the mixed zone and on to the team bus. No need to stop when you’re starting.
It is now more than two months since Salah’s mixed-zone interview at Leeds United, when he claimed the club had thrown him under the bus after he was left out of the starting XI for the third game in a row.
Regardless of what people thought, it has worked to some degree for him.
Liverpool‘s injury problems have certainly played a part too, and since coming back from the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in January, the 33-year-old has started every game. Before Afcon, manager Arne Slot did not start him for five consecutive matches.
Those close to the situation insist a statement on his social media channels was considered as an option instead of the interview at Leeds, but such was Salah’s anger at the way he felt he had been treated he wanted to speak.
“I don’t know why but it seems to me that someone doesn’t want me in the club,” said Salah at Elland Road.
In the week after, he apologised to his team-mates, shook hands with Slot, and the Liverpool boss insisted there was no a longer an issue to be resolved. Salah headed to Afcon, where he thrived.
One member of the Egypt national team set-up told BBC Sport it was the happiest they had seen Salah, who described it as “the best camp” of his life.
On his return to Liverpool he went straight back into the team, and after the Reds beat Brighton in the FA Cup this month – a game in which he claimed a goal and an assist – Slot made a point of highlighting Salah’s off-the-ball work.
“What I like the most is he is scoring goals [which you] almost expect – but he also helps the team a lot defensively and that is something very positive,” said Slot.
In terms of winning possession back across the pitch and the final third, Salah has improved compared with last season.
He has two goals and four assists in those eight games since his return, yet for a man who has grown accustomed to the extraordinary, the key metric is where he is lacking.
You have to go back to November for his last Premier League goal, and if he does not score against West Ham at Anfield on Saturday (15:00 GMT), it will be 10 games without a goal in the top flight. This is already the longest drought of his Premier League career.
“He sets his own standards and those are so, so high that the moment he doesn’t score for a few games, people are immediately surprised. That’s probably the biggest compliment he can get,” said Slot on Friday.
Salah is indeed a victim of his own standards and as such, his drop-off has been felt dearly. He averages 0.56 goals and assists per league game this season compared with 1.25 last season, when he scored the most goals and registered the most assists. In essence, his attacking output has more than halved.
He is also taking fewer shots and having fewer touches in the opposition box, while his xG (expected goals) per 90 minutes has halved from 0.68 to 0.34.
Nevertheless, the overall attacking numbers are still decent. Salah has more goal involvements (10) in the league than the likes of Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka, and only Hugo Ekitike (12) has more for Liverpool.
“We are used to Mo scoring a lot of goals and that’s at this moment of time maybe the biggest difference in his performances. But we also know this has happened before,” said Slot.
“I’ve had these questions earlier when he didn’t score for three, he didn’t score for five or I don’t know exact numbers. But I also know that in the end, he always starts scoring again.”
