Carragher questions Salah's form as Liverpool slump to Man Utd defeat

Liverpool's weekend collapse at Anfield deepened on Sunday when Manchester United left with a 2-1 victory, extending the home side's winless run to four matches across all competitions. Bryan Mbeumo gave United an early lead, Cody Gakpo drew Liverpool level in the 78th minute, and then Harry Maguire headed home a Bruno Fernandes cross to seal it for the visitors. The result left Liverpool fourth in the Premier League, four points adrift of Arsenal, while United climbed to ninth and secured back-to-back league wins under Ruben Amorim for the first time this season.

Mohamed Salah's performance that afternoon became the focal point of post-match analysis. The Egyptian winger, already struggling for consistency throughout the campaign, squandered a clear opportunity at the back post, firing wide when a goal seemed within reach. Jamie Carragher, speaking on Sky Sports, did not mince words about what he witnessed. Salah had been poor with the ball, Carragher said, though he acknowledged uncertainty about the root cause. Was it declining sharpness that comes with age? A genuine dip in form? Or was the problem upstream—a lack of quality service from teammates? Carragher stopped short of settling on any single explanation, but he was firm on one point: Salah needed to contribute more in the final third.

Carragher's critique carried weight because he framed it as coming from a place of genuine support. "I'm his biggest fan," he said, before pivoting to the harder truth: the form Salah was displaying demanded better. The question of whether his struggles reflected the team's condition or his own decline hung unanswered in the air.

John Barnes, another Liverpool figure with deep institutional memory, offered a different read before the match kicked off. He rejected the age argument outright. Salah was 33, yes, but that coincidence masked a deeper structural shift. The team around him had transformed. Trent Alexander-Arnold had departed for Real Madrid. The midfield had been reconfigured. New attacking players had arrived in the forward line. These changes, Barnes argued, had fundamentally altered how Liverpool created chances and moved the ball. The club was no longer funneling everything down the right flank where Alexander-Arnold's creativity had once been the primary weapon. That loss mattered most to Salah, Barnes suggested, because it removed the supply line he had relied on.

Barnes also pointed to a secondary problem taking shape in midfield. Liverpool had accumulated attacking players—he mentioned Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike among the creative options now available—but in doing so had sacrificed defensive stability. The old guard of defensive midfielders like Jordan Henderson, James Milner, and Fabinho had been replaced by more offensively minded players. When Liverpool lost possession, which happened frequently, they were suddenly vulnerable. The team was still scoring goals, Barnes noted, but conceding them had become the real issue. Finding the right balance between creativity and solidity remained the unresolved puzzle.

Salah's value to the team, in Barnes's estimation, had not diminished, even if the raw numbers might suggest otherwise. He was no longer the player chasing 30-goal seasons, but his contribution to winning matches remained essential. The problem was that the infrastructure supporting him had shifted, and neither Salah nor the team had yet fully adapted to the new reality. Liverpool's fourth-place finish and four-point deficit to Arsenal reflected that ongoing adjustment, with defensive frailty and creative imbalance both playing a role in a season that had promised much but delivered inconsistency instead.