Liverpool’s Front Three Have “Lost Their Mojo” According to John Aldridge

Liverpool’s recent poor run of form has had about a month to build up, and earlier this week former Liverpool striker John Aldridge had words for the usually-prolific-but-not-currently-firing front three.

In his weekly column for the Liverpool Echo, he shared his thoughts on the criticism that was due for Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, saying, “You’re on a lot of money to score goals and you have to do it. Centre-forwards have to score one in every two games basically and they’re not doing it.”

“It dumbfounds me. A team that is free-scoring the way Liverpool are, to go from one extreme to the other. We were all worried about the defence but the defence have been brilliant.

“It’s the attacking part and the front three have lost their mojo.”

Confidence is a term that’s come up a fair bit, especially considering the chances missed by Salah and Firmino recently, that they would’ve bagged on a regular business day. And Aldo agreed.

“Mane looks a threat, more so than Salah or Firmino. They look a pale shadow of the players we know they can be. The ball isn’t falling for them and the confidence isn’t there”, he said.

“It just shows when the confidence is down, the play isn’t great, that you snatch at things as well. It’s really worrying. For whatever reason, they’re not creating chances.

“We never looked like scoring against Southampton. Newcastle, no.

“That’s the worry. If you’re missing sitters and hitting the woodwork and the goalkeeper is pulling off magnificent saves, but I can’t really remember many in the last couple of games.”

He also noted the conspicuous absence of Diogo Jota, who Jurgen Klopp suggested isn’t going to be ready to play any time soon.

“Is it coincidental that, Crystal Palace apart, while Jota ’s been injured, the lads haven’t been at it. Is that coincidental or is it a burden on them or are they taken it for granted that they’re going to play every game.

I don’t know. It’s not helped the situation. At the time Jota got injured, he was probably our best striker.”