Paul Fennessy

Updated at 23.11

AT THE start of last season, Mo Salah and Arne Slot made a secret pact.

After the Dutchman arrived at Anfield, he had a conversation with the Egyptian star.

“I was very honest,” Salah recalled.

“I told him: ‘With me, you are going to win the Premier League, but I have to feel really comfortable with the way we play.’

“He was very honest with me, we had a few honest conversations, and he said to me: ‘Okay, I will get the best out of you. I will put you in a situation where you feel comfortable, but I need you to provide the numbers.’”

This move ultimately paid dividends for both parties.

Slot guided Liverpool to the title for just the second time in the Premier League era.

And Salah was crowned the Football Writers Association’s player of the year for a third time, scoring 35 goals in all competitions, while he contributed 18 assists, comfortably more than any other Premier League player.

The Egypt international’s game has evolved in recent years.

Inevitably, as he has grown older, it has become less about pace and beating players and more pure goalscoring.

He lacks the intensity of old and the work-rate off the ball that helped Liverpool become one of the best pressing teams in the world.

That was part of the bargain with Slot — he would not have to expend as much physical effort as other teammates so long as he delivered “the numbers”.

The same deal presumably exists between Slot and Salah now.

But this season, the 33-year-old, who has started all eight of Liverpool’s Premier League games, has managed a disappointing (by his standards) two goals, plus one in their Champions League victory over Atletico Madrid.

Tonight, with Salah starting the game on the bench, the reigning English champions looked more like their old selves, thumping Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1.

Multiple factors led to this scenario, of course.

Firstly, it is worth noting that Frankfurt are probably the worst team Liverpool have faced in their last five matches, four of which they have lost in a dramatic drop in form that was starting to look similar to what Pep Guardiola’s once-all-conquering Man City team suffered last season. 

In the summer, Frankfurt lost their best player, Hugo Ekitike, the man who took Salah’s place in the team tonight and showed an impressive burst of pace before a composed finish to equalise after the Reds went behind.

And the German side have had a relatively underwhelming start to the season — they have won just one of their last five Bundesliga fixtures and are seventh in the table, 11 points off leaders Bayern Munich.

Dino Toppmöller’s team have had a similarly inconsistent start to their Champions League campaign, beating Galatasaray 5-1 in the opening fixture before losing to Atletico Madrid by the same scoreline.

It’s worth pointing out, too, that Salah also began on the bench for Liverpool’s last Champions League match — a 1-0 loss to Galatasaray.

But there is no getting away from the Egyptian’s decline in form, which is part of the reason why Slot opted to rest his star man for a crucial game in which the Reds were desperate to arrest their decline in fortunes.

It’s also notable that of Liverpool’s starting XI tonight, only six were at the club last season.

As difficult as it is for new signings like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz to adapt, it must be similarly challenging for stalwarts such as Salah, who are also effectively playing in a new team, such has been the degree of change at Anfield this summer.

Despite being widely considered among Liverpool’s greatest ever players at this stage — he is third on the club’s list of all-time top scorers — Salah has not escaped criticism of late.

Club legend Jamie Carragher has been among those to weigh in — suggesting the attacker should no longer be a guaranteed starter.

Liverpool's manager Arne Slot gestures during the Champions League match tonight. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

If Slot agrees, it could make for an awkward situation. Salah only signed a lucrative new two-year contract at the end of last season, so that might start to feel like a costly mistake should the Egyptian become a squad player.

Whether Salah would even accept that status for a sustained period is doubtful — great players inevitably have big egos and are rarely satisfied unless they remain central to whatever project they are associated with.

Consequently, reports of a big offer to play in Saudi Arabia, potentially as soon as January, have not gone away, amid talk of £500 million in wages.

Former Man United star Wayne Rooney is among those predicting a swift exit.

“I just think Salah has played a lot of games over the last few years, and he’s been the main man, and he’s carried that pressure,” Rooney told the BBC.

“And you’re probably in the top five great Premier League players, in my opinion. I think it looked like it maybe caught up a little bit with him.”

Salah was introduced in the 74th minute this evening, and had one or two decent chances, but looked short on confidence and stark contrast to the man who lit up the league so spectacularly last season.

In the Egyptian’s defence, he is one of many players struggling.

The likes of Isak and Wirtz have been similarly sub-par, but because of Salah’s age, he tends to be written off more readily.

It’s not really that difficult to imagine a refreshed Salah returning to the team and making a meaningful contribution to a title charge, even if it means tolerating fewer minutes than before.

Salah, after all, played 54 times last season and has already made 16 appearances this year, not to mention being expected to regularly travel back to Africa to line out for his country.

On the other hand, with Liverpool last season in particular, it seemed as if he was the primary star around whom the team was built.

Isak and Wirtz are similarly players whom you build teams around, so it’s no surprise that the Reds have often appeared so imbalanced and defensively vulnerable as they try to accommodate an abundance of stars.

It leaves Slot in an unenviable position and with a difficult decision to make that shouldn’t be too influenced by tonight’s victory against a hapless Frankfurt side.

The manager tends to be more forthright than most, and he didn’t really downplay the big decision tonight, telling TNT Sports: “The first answer is always yes, [it was a difficult decision to make].

“But that is also to do with Mo and all the players I have.

“Every time I select a team, it’s always difficult because I have so many good players. That’s also the reason why I use these players.

“I liked the way we ended the game against United. Mainly the second half. Created a lot of chances.

“And Ryan [Gravenberch] is out, so that means we have to restructure our midfield a little bit as well — defensively and offensively. So all together, with the way Frankfurt usually plays, we decided to start like this.

“But as always, I have players who start the game and I have players who can impact the game off the bench, and that is [the case] today as well.”

An interesting few months lie ahead.