£34m manpower is shaping up to be Liverpool’s biggest liability since Fabinho

Arne Slott has steadied the ship at Liverpool in recent months, but fans remain concerned that the reigning Premier League champions will not qualify for next season’s Champions League.

That would be a disaster. Not only will missing out on Europe’s elite competition have financial implications, but the Reds will be left with a squad of disgruntled superstars and a reduced force heading into the crucial summer transfer window.

But these players need to check themselves after such disastrous results throughout the campaign. Some of Anfield’s biggest stars have fallen significantly.

Liverpool’s star player has fallen

A lot has gone wrong at Liverpool this season. It’s hard to pinpoint the cause of the regression, but it’s clear that the left channel is the weak link.

After selling Luis Dias to Bayern Munich for £65.5m in the summer, Kodi Gakpo lacked dynamism in his new prominent role. With the decline of 31-year-old Andy Robertson and early teething problems in Milos Kerkes, it’s not hard to pinpoint why the team in the slot has become so poor.

This has happened before under Jurgen Klopp. Jordan Henderson and Fabinho were among the midfielders who ran out of battery in such a high-octane system.

In fact, a prominent fan has said that Alexis Mac Allister’s physique “resembles Fabinho in his final season”, the player who deserted him.

However, Mac Allister is only 27 years old and will surely bounce back.

The same cannot be said for everyone, with the veteran squad on Merseyside actually looking like Fabinho 2.0.

Liverpool’s new version of Fabinho

Fabinho has long been the glue at the heart of Liverpool’s title-winning system. The Brazilian player was one of the best.

They may not be quite alike from a stylistic standpoint, but Mohamed Salah has fallen off the proverbial cliff this season in terms of fluency and sharpness in the final third, becoming a problem similar to Slott’s own Fabinho. His angry outburst in December before AFCON sparked fears Salah was headed for a bitter exit, but although that issue has been resolved, it feels like he has entered the final stages.

Of course, Salah is one of the greatest forwards in Premier League history. Since joining Liverpool from Roma for £34 million in 2017, he has played the full game, scoring 252 goals and providing 121 assists in 429 appearances.

However, we can’t ignore the slump he hasn’t been able to overcome this season. Salah is often left out of the flow of the match, and his unusual abandonment in front of goal is an added hindrance.

The 33-year-old still has more than a year left on his current contract, but there is no doubt that Liverpool cannot afford to remain a talismanic presence at the top when they are underperforming. As the Saudi Pro League awaits, perhaps FSG would be wise to raise funds while they still can and redirect them to their successors.

In the end, Fabinho joined Al Ittihad for £40m in 2023, with the sale set for a summer of big changes that ushered in this exciting new era.

Since last season’s huge success, the difference is night and day. Salah is aging and carried the weight of the club last season, but he shouldn’t have declined so quickly.

As Salah’s status as a superstar in the English game draws to a close, questions must be asked about FSG’s decision to give him a record-breaking contract extension.

Of course, hindsight is a great thing, but Salah’s fundamental stats declined last season as well, which was offset by his incredible sharpness in dangerous areas.

In this respect, Salah may be becoming a new version of Anfield’s Fabinho. Fabinho was one of the best players in the business at the time, but faltered in Klopp’s final year on Merseyside and lost his former strength.