R.E.S.P.E.C.T. It needs spelling out to some people.
The desire to pile on Mohamed Salah simply because the Liverpool legend is out of form, and failed to square the ball to Florian Wirtz against Manchester United and Eintracht Frankfurt, needs to be resisted. It is possible to debate Salah’s place in Liverpool’s starting XI, even argue cogently for his omission, without trashing the Egyptian King’s legacy. Salah deserves more respect.
Wirtz’s creative influence against Eintracht in particular, especially in the second half when he delivered two assists, can be talked up without stamping down on Salah. Nothing lasts forever in football, of course. Salah is 33, he cannot take his place for granted, and the team’s creative focus revolves more around the 22-year-old Wirtz. It’s why Liverpool paid Bayer Leverkusen £116 million ($154.9 million).
The image of Salah going it alone, and failing, shimmered with symbolism. Wirtz was in the ideal place to drag the team back level against United on Sunday. Instead, Salah skewed his shot into the Kop. In Frankfurt, Wirtz again found a yard of space to offer a very obvious passing option for Salah. Instead, he shot meekly at Michael Zetterer.
Yet that failure to pass may, in time, come to represent the moment when actually the baton of the Liverpool orchestra passed from Salah to Wirtz. That is now the broader debate.
Baton Passing From Salah to Wirtz
Each talent does his best work in different parts of the field, Salah wide, Wirtz central. The German is more a player who knits together moves rather than finishes them. Yet Liverpool’s head coach Arne Slot will feel vindicated that he started Wirtz on the right at Deutsche Bank Park with Salah on the bench. Wirtz stayed right when Eintracht had the ball, and moved centrally to pull the strings when Liverpool were in possession.
They can play together. Alexander Isak’s groin injury frees up a place in an attack already comprising Cody Gakpo and Hugo Ekitiké, the prolific Frenchman who has to start.
But even those of us who are long-standing admirers of Salah, rightly considered as one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s 133-year history, cannot escape the blizzard of recent negative stats engulfing Liverpool’s No. 11.
Salah’s Decline Stretches Beyond Statistics
Compared to last season, Salah is averaging half as many shots, less than half the number of goals and assists and a fraction of as many touches in the opposition box. He played one glorious pass against United, releasing Gakpo, but struggled, and his half-hour cameo against Eintracht offered little.
All manner of reasons, ranging from tactical to emotional, are suggested for Salah’s travails.
Salah’s Dwindling Statistics
Stats via FBref. Correct as of Oct. 23, 2025.
He’s still mourning his friend and teammate, Diogo Jota, who passed away in a car-crash in the summer. When Liverpool fans broke into Jota’s song at Anfield, Salah looked to the skies. Only he knows how grief impacts him but it must be a factor.
A less weighty issue, a tactical one, is that Salah does not receive the same quality of service down the right as before. He was always going to miss a ball-player like Trent Alexander-Arnold, who left for Real Madrid. The pair built an understanding over nearly a decade. That’s gone.
His failure to help out his fullback was less of an issue when Salah was contributing goals and assists; it’s a more glaring deficiency now. He’s the type of proud character who will fight for his place. Or he could be sold to Saudi Arabia, a handsome fee guaranteed by that contract extension.
Wirtz Finding His Partner in Liverpool’s Midfield
Wirtz’s arrival has hardly been accompanied by fanfares. He has no goals or assists in eight Premier League appearances, and only an assist in the Community Shield before last night’s double. He wears a famous shirt number, 7, that has Liverpool history woven through it. It is the uniform of club legends and European champions like Sir Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan OBE, and stretching back to Ian Callaghan and Billy Liddell.
There are inconsistencies to Wirtz’s game: he has a silky touch and then the ball can bounce off him, and sometimes it feels like he’s a virtuoso playing a tune that teammates need to learn. Dominik Szoboszlai appears quickly in tune.
There are concerns over his physicality, and he was bumped off the ball by Nathaniel Brown in the move that led to Eintracht’s goal. But Wirtz brings a stealth of movement, a quicksilver darting, progressive approach and subtlety of distribution that few in Europe can conjure up.
His qualities of relentless running, finding space and delivering perfect balls were seen in his two assists. Wirtz’s cross from the right to Gakpo bisected the Eintracht keeper Zetterer and his back-pedalling centre back, Robin Koch. His velvety layoff to Szoboszlai was a reminder of the growing connection between the pair and really should have been delivered in white gloves bearing a silver platter.
One of Wirtz’s most impressive, intelligent interventions of the night came without a touch, simply creating space with his movement. As Szoboszlai advanced through the middle, Wirtz very deliberately dashed right, dragging two Eintracht defenders with him. Curtis Jones, racing down the inside-left channel, now had more space.
Salah Should Never Be Written Off
Two assists in four minutes doesn’t mean he’s the new messiah, just as the abuse on social media didn’t mean Wirtz was worthless. What always filled his supporters with belief was that Wirtz never hid. His numbers against Eintracht were good: 56 of his 63 passes found their target, including both of his long balls, and he created four chances.
People are now saying that the two assists will do wonders for Wirtz’s belief. That was never an issue. He never looked to be playing without belief. The two assists will simply do wonders for others’ belief in Wirtz. He should never have been written off, and nor should Salah. He may even be restored to the lineup for Saturday’s game at Brentford.
Any debate about Salah and Wirtz must carry dutiful reference to the credit column in the ledger of Salah’s returns. He’s registered 248 goals and 113 assists in 413 games. He’s helped Liverpool to two Premier League titles, one Champions League, one FA Cup and two EFL Cups.
Salah’s the reigning players’ Player of the Year and the writers’ Footballer of the Year. He finished fourth in last month’s Ballon d’Or with many Liverpool fans demanding to know why he wasn’t voted higher. (Ousmane Dembele, Lamine Yamal and Vitinha had better years.)
What some critics decried as selfishness in Salah not passing to Wirtz, and going for goal himself, was lauded as single-mindedness in recent times. He’s not become a bad player simply because of a difficult month or two. He will eventually leave Liverpool, but let’s hope that when that momentous day arrives it is met with due respect for Salah, a Liverpool legend.
READ HENRY WINTER’S WEEKLY SPORTS ILLUSTRATED COLUMN
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Image That Perfectly Symbolises the Baton Passing at Liverpool.