Mohamed Salah may be experiencing the worst goal drought of his Premier League career, but Liverpool manager Arne Slot believes the Egypt striker is paying the price for his own high standards.
Salah, 33, has won the Golden Boot four times as the English top-flight's leading goal-scorer since arriving at Anfield in 2017, the latest in last season's title-winning campaign. But he has now gone nine league matches without a goal.
That is his worst run in the Premier League but Slot, speaking ahead of Saturday's match at home to West Ham, told reporters: "He set his own standards and those are so high and the moment he doesn’t score for a few games people are immediately surprised - that is the biggest compliment he can get."
The Dutch boss, whose side are sixth on the table and three points off a Champions League place, added: "We are used to Mo scoring a lot of goals and at this moment in time that is maybe the biggest difference in his performance and game time.
"But we also know this has happened before, I don't know if it happened nine games in a row but I've had these questions earlier if he didn't score for three or five but I know in the end he always starts scoring again.
"He is not our only attacker at this moment in time that doesn't score as much as we are used to.
"The focus is totally on him because of everything he did for the club but Hugo (Ekitike) and Cody (Gakpo) haven't scored that many goals recently as well. It is a team thing which we have to improve."
Liverpool, meanwhile, announced they had returned to profit after their title triumph last season with a pre-tax surplus of £15.2 million ($20.5 million) that owed much to a £60 million increase in media revenue.
But performance bonuses, plus the contract renewals of high-profile stars such as Salah and skipper Virgil van Dijk, helped leave Liverpool with the highest wage bill in the Premier League as staff expenditure rose by £42 million to £428 million.
That put Liverpool ahead of Manchester City, whose employee costs for the same season were £408 million.
As these figures relate to the 2024/25 campaign, with the accounting period ending on May 31, they do not include Liverpool's £450m summer spending spree on the likes of British record transfer Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ekitike.
Liverpool's chief financial officer Jenny Beacham said the figures were welcome but warned tougher times may lie ahead.
"The club does face significant cost challenges, including rises in administrative, staffing and operational costs, alongside the need for us to compete at the highest level of the game, across our men's and women's teams."