Danny Murphy claims Arne Slot is giving one instruction which has ‘become a problem’ for Liverpool

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Liverpool have a number of clear issues affecting their performances this season after a haphazard beginning to the campaign.

The Reds will be thankful for the October international break to have a little reset following what has been a testing period.

Three losses on the spin were not in the script for Arne Slot after a seven-game winning run, and the Liverpool head coach must go back to the drawing board while his players are away.

One of the biggest worries for fans during their trio of defeats has been the form – or lack thereof – of Mohamed Salah.

Salah’s defensive work has been questioned after Saturday’s loss against Chelsea, with the Egyptian no longer offering much going back towards his own goal.

Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella highlighted how the Blues exploited this issue to win the game at the weekend, but rather than being a Salah issue, former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy thinks the instructions come from Slot himself.

Mohamed Salah is simply following orders

When the opposition are citing your tactics as being a reason they won the game, you know you are doing something wrong.

And according to Murphy, if Liverpool want Salah to work more defensively, then Slot is going to have to tell him to do it.

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“It feels like Mohamed Salah’s lack of defensive work has become a little problem for Liverpool, especially against the better teams,” the pundit writes for BBC Sport.

“First and foremost, I cannot believe Slot is telling Salah to track back and help out his right-back. If Salah was told to follow Chelsea’s left-back Marc Cucurella, then it was extremely obvious he wasn’t, and Slot would not put up with that.

“Instead, Slot is giving Salah the freedom to not do the defensive work, which is fine – there are lots of examples of other teams who have done similar, with players who want to save all their energy for attacking.

“Yes, there are still certain times in a game where you are conceding chances and you are under pressure, where you might take responsibility yourself and just run back,” Murphy adds.

“I know Salah can do it too, because when Liverpool won at Manchester City last season, his defensive performance was one of the best I’ve seen from him. But he must have been asked to do it on that occasion, which is why I am not digging him out here if he has been asked to stay up the pitch.”

Arne Slot must instruct Salah to track back

The main reason for keeping Salah in more advanced positions is to save his legs for when he can make a difference at the other end.

While that is all well and good, the simple truth right now is that the 33-year-old is not doing that either. So, Liverpool are losing one player in the defensive third essentially for nothing.

Given the Reds have weapons such as Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike now and are not as reliant on Salah’s output, we see no reason why the Egyptian should not be doing his defensive duties.

It will be fascinating to see whether Slot tries something different, but with Liverpool struggling to find a solution at right-back, that side of the team is currently in disarray.

The easy fix would be to simply ask Salah to get back a little more than he is. It can hardly impact further on his attacking output right now, but it might just help Liverpool be a touch more solid.