Questions have lingered about whether Mohamed Salah can regain the stellar form that once dazzled fans, but Graeme Souness seems to have made up his mind.

“In my experience, a player’s career can go one of two ways when they reach their early 30s, around 33 or 34 years old. It either plummets or declines gradually, and I believe Salah is experiencing the former,” Souness shared with Daily Mail Sport.

Reflecting on the season’s start, Souness recalls watching the Community Shield match against Crystal Palace. “I turned to my young son and said, ‘Something seems off with him.’ Initially, I thought maybe he just needed a few games to get back into form.”

He added, “When you’re in a tough spot, you rely on your key players to step up. It’s been surprising for Liverpool fans, the manager, and the coaching staff that this hasn’t happened.”

Indeed, Salah, now 33, is having a challenging season. His tally of 10 goals and nine assists across all competitions, while respectable for many Premier League players, falls short compared to his past performances. By this time last year, Salah had 44 goal contributions, and 34 the year before. The lowest he had previously recorded was 27 during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.

Salah’s numbers this season do not paint a pretty picture, with his 10 goals and nine assists in all competitions standing in stark contrast to seasons past

Graeme Souness spoke to Daily Mail Sport through his partnership with Flutter’s Cash4Clubs initiative, through which he gave £2,000 to grassroots side Easthouse Lily Miners FC (pictured)

“There’s no denying that his peak is behind him. The first to recognize this reality is the player himself, as it happens to everyone,” Souness remarked. “The spark isn’t quite there anymore. If you’re looking for the main reason behind Liverpool’s inconsistent form, his lack of numbers is significant.”

‘He’s been for six, seven years the Liverpool go-to man. He has completely changed games when it wasn’t going their way, and he has scored a ridiculous number of goals every season. He’s a great – a Liverpool great – but his best season is behind him.’

That verdict naturally leads to the next question: what should Liverpool do about it? With that, Souness delivers an unequivocal ‘yes’ to whether Salah should leave at the end of the season, despite the Egypt international’s contract running up until 2027.

While that stance may unsettle some supporters, performances on the pitch have done little to soften Souness’ outlook. It is timely, then, that Liverpool have just swept aside Souness’ other former (managerial) side Galatasaray to book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals, although the Scotsman remains unconvinced about their chances of going all the way.

‘I thought Galatasaray were exceptionally poor. I expected so much more from them. They didn’t believe they could get a result,’ said Souness, who won three European Cups during his time with Liverpool.

‘And Liverpool, okay, you can only beat what’s in front of you but Liverpool are not the same team as last year. Wednesday night was a good game for them because the opposition was so weak.’

Looking beyond Liverpool, Souness’ views on the wider title picture are no less forthright. So then how about stronger opposition – say, Arsenal?

‘I think Arsenal will win the league.’

The quadruple as well?

‘No, but they’re a pragmatic team. They know how to win football matches, and it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But I’ve won leagues and were we always the prettiest outfit? No, we just got the job done. And no one will remember how we did it. And will they evolve? Yeah. But they’re not a team that the rest of the league enjoy playing against, because they’ll test you to your limits.’

As for their reliance on ‘set-piece guru’ Nicolas Jover, who has helped make them become the most lethal team from set-pieces in the top-flight, Souness doesn’t hold back.

Souness did not hold back in his assessment of Arsenal’s ‘set-piece guru’ Nicolas Jover (pictured), who he assessed merely told his players to foul the opposition goalkeeper

‘(Rosenior) tries too hard with his terminology. Giving players “assignments”. If the manager said that to me, I’d have laughed at him in his face,’ Souness said

‘Arsenal get away with a hell of a lot by crowding goalkeepers and blocking goalkeepers. You block anyone on the pitch, anywhere else on the pitch – a centre-half half blocks a centre forward as he’s trying to make a run – and that’s a foul.

‘I just think we’ve got daft referees. We’ve got poor referees who don’t really understand the game. They know all the rules from the first page to the last one, but nuances of the game they don’t get.

‘I love the term ‘free-kick guru’. Their guru (Jover) is all about fouling the goalkeeper. That’s as simple as, black and white. Now, of course, there’s people like Gabriel Saliba who are really brave and will put their heads where most people wouldn’t put their feet, and they attack these balls that Declan Rice whips in, and they’re great quality.

‘To be successful at free kicks you need a really good kicker of the ball, Declan, you need people who will attack the ball, they’ve got that, and then you throw in the guy who’s fouling the goalkeeper. It’s not rocket science.’

And while Jover draws criticism for Arsenal’s methods, Souness is similarly unconvinced by what he has seen from Chelsea of late.

‘Chelsea are – I don’t know what they are,’ he adds. ‘Chelsea are a group of young men put together with no real direction. I think the manager (Rosenior) tries too hard with his terminology. Giving players “assignments”. If the manager said that to me, I’d have laughed at him in his face.

‘I just think he tries too hard to be a top coach, with his body language and what he says. So no surprises for me, Chelsea going out (of the Champions League).’

Flutter’s Cash4Clubs initiative, which will see 250 community clubs across the UK and Ireland receive a share of grants worth a total of £500,000.