Following up his dreamy debut season in the Premier League was always going to be difficult for Mohamed Salah, but even his doubters didn’t expect his current scoring drought, coming as Liverpool are running neck and neck with Manchester City towards the title-winning finish line.

Salah has scored 17 goals in 31 league matches this season – certainly a very nice follow up to his historic 2017-18 campaign. However, after going on a 7-week tear in December and most of January, things have gone quiet for him, just as Liverpool lost their promising 7 point lead at the top, now forced to wait for Man City to slip up.

Since his brace in a 4-3 win over Crystal Palace, capping off a run of 9 goals in 8 matches, Salah has scored just once in 8 matches. His current drought stretches back to February 9, when he scored against Bournemouth. Five scoreless matches in the league (it gets worst with other competitions taken into account).

Fantasy call each of his duds a “blank”. Liverpool fans something else. Those wishing for Liverpool to end up missing out on the title again have another way to call it. For now, evident from their performance against Fulham and earlier vs Bayern Munich in the Champions League, Salah’s main role is of a decoy. Even opponents don’t think his drought can go on much longer, but most of the time, there’s someone (Sadio Mane) who is picking up the slack.