Mohamed Salah is finished and Liverpool will be relieved to see the back of him after Man City FA Cup defeat

Jack Otway
Sat, 04 Apr 2026 13:45:00 +0000

There comes a moment in the twilight of every great sporting career when the undeniable truth can no longer be masked by past glories.

The legs grow heavy, the razor-sharp instincts blunt, and the aura of invincibility shatters.

For Mohamed Salah, that agonising reality was laid bare on Saturday afternoon.

As Liverpool were humiliated in a 4-0 defeat to Manchester City, the inescapable conclusion was written across the Etihad turf: the Egyptian King is finished, and everyone at Anfield will be quietly relieved when he finally departs this summer.

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Football, at its highest echelon, is entirely dictated by fine margins and taken opportunities.

In his prime, Salah was the undisputed master of these moments, a ruthless executioner who terrorised defences and buried half-chances with terrifying consistency.

Against Pep Guardiola’s imperious City machine, however, he was presented with two golden opportunities to. He squandered both with the hesitant, laboured demeanour of a player entirely bereft of confidence.

The first was an early sitter that will undoubtedly haunt the travelling Merseyside faithful. Played through beautifully with only the goalkeeper to beat, this was the exact scenario where the Salah of old would have opened his body and rifled the ball exquisitely into the far corner.

Instead, there was a visible stutter. The trademark blistering acceleration was absent, allowing the covering defender to apply pressure. When the shot finally came, it was rushed, scuffed, and horribly wide.

It was a miss that immediately sucked the belief right out of the away end and would set the tone for what was to follow.

City, from that moment on, successfully sensed blood. They powered their way into a 4-0 lead, with Erling Haaland netting a hat-trick and Antoine Semenyo also on target.

There was a brief flicker of hope for Liverpool when they were awarded a penalty in the second half. But Salah's spot-kick, ultimately, was catastrophic.

As he stepped up, the conviction was entirely missing. The resulting spot-kick was weak, with James Trafford diving impressively to make a save.

The contrast between Salah’s wasteful, disjointed display and the clinical brilliance of City’s attacking arsenal could not have been starker.

While Liverpool’s talisman faltered, Haaland delivered an absolute masterclass in predatory finishing. While he's been out of sorts in recent weeks, this was a far better showing from the 25-year-old.

As for Semenyo, the Ghana international continues to impress. He's been electrifying ever since his January arrival from Bournemouth and could yet end up with another trophy, having helped City claim Carabao Cup glory two weeks ago.

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To view Salah's shambolic performance in isolation would be a massive disservice to the wider context of what has been a deeply troubling 2025/26 campaign for the 33-year-old.

This was not merely an off day. Instead, it was the culmination of a season-long regression.

The warning signs of decline have been flashing all year. The explosive burst of pace that once allowed him to effortlessly bypass full-backs has completely vanished, leaving him frequently isolated, frustrated, and easily dispossessed.

His decision-making, once an underrated facet of his game, has become increasingly erratic, often choosing to shoot when a pass is vital, or passing when the goal is begging.

Furthermore, his well-documented and public fallout with manager Arne Slot during the winter - which resulted in Salah being relegated to the bench for three consecutive matches - shattered the harmonious illusion of his untouchable status.

Being benched clearly dented his pride, but Saturday's performance proved exactly why Slot felt compelled to make such a drastic call in the first place.

When compared to the player who delivered Premier League and Champions League glory to Anfield, the drop-off is startling.

Between 2017 and the summer of 2025, Salah was one of the best players on the planet, a goalscoring phenomenon who regularly shattered records and defied logic.

Today, he looks like a passenger. The statistics make for grim reading, but the eye test is even harsher. His fear factor is completely gone.

Beyond individual statistics, Salah's physical decline is actively harming Liverpool's wider tactical setup.

Slot's system demands high-octane pressing, relentless energy, and complete synchronicity from his forward line.

When the right winger can no longer execute the press with the required intensity, the entire structure crumbles.

Against City, Salah's inability to press from the front forced the Liverpool midfield to constantly overcompensate.

This left gaping holes in the centre of the park, spaces that Pep Guardiola's side gleefully exploited. It is becoming increasingly evident that Liverpool cannot play modern, elite-level football while carrying a forward who can no longer contribute effectively off the ball.

Last month, Salah released an emotional video confirming that he had reached a mutual agreement with the club to terminate his contract a year early, allowing him to leave as a free agent in June 2026.

At the time, the announcement was met with an outpouring of nostalgic grief from a fanbase that adores him. He rightly spoke of Liverpool being a 'passion, history, and a spirit,' and his legacy as one of the club's greatest ever players remains fundamentally secure.

However, after watching him toil fruitlessly at the Etihad, the overriding emotion among the Liverpool hierarchy—and increasingly, the match-going fanbase—must surely be relief.

The decision to mutually part ways is now entirely vindicated. Keeping a declining, highly-paid superstar on the books for another year would only stall Slot’s rebuilding process and prevent the club from integrating the necessary dynamic reinforcements needed to challenge the current heavyweights. The transition needs to happen, and it needs to happen now.