The £34m talent now becomes Liverpool’s biggest loan since Fabinho

Arne Slot has steadied the ship in recent months at Liverpool, but fans are still concerned that the reigning Premier League champions will fail to qualify for next season’s Champions League.

That would be a disaster. Not only will missing out on Europe’s elite competition have financial consequences, but the Reds will have a group of disgruntled superstars and power-pullers ahead of the crucial summer transfer window.

However, these players need to evaluate themselves after such poor form throughout the campaign. Several of Anfield’s biggest stars have fallen at the big time.

Liverpool stars have fallen

A lot has gone wrong for Liverpool this season. It’s hard to pin the pullback down to any one point, but the left channel has been a weak spot, for sure.

Following the summer sale of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich for £65.5m, Cody Gakpo has been thrust into a role of new importance. My partner is that with the decline of 31 years old Andy Robertson and Milos Kerkez the first teething problems and it is not difficult to identify why Slot’s side are so poor.

This happened before under Jurgen Klopp. Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were among the midfielders who drained their batteries in the high-octane fixture.

In fact, Alexis Mac Allister was told by one prominent fan voice that he “looked like Fabinho in his last season”, his body has abandoned him.

But Mac Allister is only 27 and will bounce back.

The same cannot be said for everyone, with the veteran member of the Merseyside outfit essentially looking like Fabinho 2.0.

Liverpool’s new version of Fabinho

Fabinho was at the heart of Liverpool’s title-winning program for a long time. The Brazilian was one of the best.

They may not be very different from a stylistic point of view, but Mohamed Salah is turning into a slot problem similar to Fabinho, who has fallen off a cliff this season in terms of his smoothness and sharpness in the final third. His outburst in December, before the AFCON sparked concerns that Salah was on his way out, and although that has been resolved, it feels like he has entered the final stages.

Salah is, of course, one of the greatest strikers in Premier League history. Since joining Liverpool from Roma for £34m in 2017, he has racked up a total of 429 appearances, scoring 252 goals and providing 121 assists.

But we can’t ignore that he couldn’t rock this season. Salah is often poor in the game, and his brutality in front of goal has hindered him.

Although the 33-year-old has more than a year left on his current contract, there is no doubt that Liverpool cannot afford to maintain his talismanic presence up top when he is not delivering the goods. With the Saudi Pro League pending, perhaps FSG would be wise to cash in while they still can and redirect the funds to a successor.

Fabinho, after all, joined Al-Ittihad for £40m in 2023, with that sale turning into a transformative summer of change that has ushered in this exciting new era.

As successful as last season was, the difference is night and day. Salah has grown and carried the burden of the team on his shoulders last season, but he should not have dropped too much.

As the end draws near for Salah and his iconic status in the English game, questions must be answered over FSG’s decision to hand him a record-breaking contract extension.

Hindsight is, of course, a wonderful thing, but Salah’s fundamentals have also declined over the past season, with incredible sharpness in the danger zone.

This time, Salah could be turning to Anfield’s new version of Fabinho, who was one of the best in the business in his day but fell by the wayside in that final year under Klopp on Merseyside, having lost his former power.

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