*Data dates back to 2017-18 (Premier League) and 34 games when Salah does not start, comprised of 17 appearances from the bench and 17 games missed entirely [BBC]BBCTue, December 2, 2025 at 4:12 PM UTC·2 min readArne Slot's use of Dominik Szobozslai on Liverpool's right wing in place of last season's Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah paid off in Sunday's win at West Ham.
The move has left an impression, as in a poll conducted on BBC Sport's Liverpool page on Monday, 44% of respondents expressed Szobozslai should be the Reds' right winger, with Federico Chiesa second on 22%, Salah third in the running on 17% and Florian Wirtz picked for the right-wing berth by 13% of readers.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt seems almost farcical given merely only a few months have passed since Salah found the net 29 times in the 2024-25 Premier League season - form so good that supporters called for his contract to be extended from behind the flutter of a flag which read "he fires a bow, now give Mo his dough".
A dig through the data on Liverpool's fortunes with and without Salah is perhaps surprising.
Covering Premier League games since he joined the club in the 2017-18 season, Salah has started 283 times and has either not played or been used as a substitute on a combined 34 occasions.
In those games when the Egyptian has come off the bench or sat a game out, Liverpool boast a higher win percentage, an improved points return, score more on average and concede fewer.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn the interest of being thorough, we also scrutinised the data when Salah does not come off the bench. Remarkably, he has only missed 17 league games across over eight seasons, featuring in 300.
In the games in which he played no part, Liverpool have secured an average 2.5 points, compared to 2.1 when he has. Their win percentage leaps to 76.5% in his absence, compared to 64.3% with him.
The numbers seem to favour a change that seemed unthinkable six months ago, though it should be stressed the sample of games Salah does not start or feature in is small and therefore statistically less significant.
Salah, picked as Liverpool's players' player of the season in five of the eight seasons he has completed, has embodied the word "talisman". Ask any fan if a player signed this summer could repeat his feat of going on to become the club's third-highest scorer and they would bite your hand off.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementThis has been a Liverpool career of astounding success. The class shown time and again will almost certainly win the day and shine through at a crucial moment in the months ahead, even if the data suggests an evolution of the Reds' right flank may not be a foolish pursuit.
