It was a frustrating night for Mohamed Salah despite Egypt recording a comfortable 3-0 victory over Cape Verde.
It was the first time since January that the Liverpool winger did not record a goal contribution for Egypt, having scored six goals and recorded four assists in his previous seven caps for his country.
Egypt were impressive on the night against Cape Verde, but Salah was left frustrated having been deployed in a strange new role for his nation.
Salah was often seen dropping a lot deeper and playing as an attacking midfielder rather than his customary right-wing role for Liverpool.
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Salah’s frustrating numbers for Egypt vs Cape Verde
The Liverpool star struggled to settle into his deeper role and was left frustrated a lot of the times.
As per SofaScore, he lost possession the most time on the pitch, a whopping 18 times. He also lost the most duels (eight) while winning zero duels.
This image below posted by one Twitter user demonstrates just how deep Salah was dropping at times in order to receive the ball.
Another example of Salah’s surprisingly reserved role is the fact that the Liverpool winger had zero shots on and off target.
His SofaScore heatmap also highlights just how deep he was dropping in the game.
While there are some dark spots in the usual parts of the pitch that we see him occupying for Liverpool, there are also dark spots behind the central line, in Egypt’s own half, which is definitely not something Liverpool fans will be used to seeing.
In general, Salah was a lot more central for Egypt and played on the edges of the box rather than drifting into the areas where he thrives in the Premier League.
While Egypt may have won the game, this was definitely not a successful experiment for Egypt. Based on the numbers, Salah struggled on the night.
Arne Slot, will be especially not pleased by Salah’s inability to win a single duel in the game after the Liverpool head coach has emphasised the importance of doing exactly that on numerous occasions recently.
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