Hossam Hassan changed Egypt's attack against Belgium on Monday, and Mohamed Salah was the central piece in the switch. On his 34th birthday, Salah moved up beside Omar Marmoush instead of holding the right flank.
The shift came in a World Cup date in Seattle and involved three players changing positions. Egypt used a shape that stayed similar in possession, but the front line looked different once the ball moved into attacking areas.
Mohamed Salah beside Omar Marmoush
Salah and Marmoush were the clearest sign of the tweak. Rather than stretching the play from the right, Salah operated closer to goal and worked inside the attacking lane next to Marmoush, which changed where Egypt tried to receive and combine before the final action.
Egypt's 51,4% shape against New Zealand offered a similar reference point for how the team can organize itself in possession, but Monday's change put Salah in a narrower role and asked more of the players around him.
Hossam Hassan's three-player move
Hassan's surprise was not just about Salah. The adjustment involved three players switching positions, a move that signaled a different attacking structure rather than a simple one-man change. Egypt's setup still depended on movement around the forward line, but the emphasis shifted away from the old right-side starting point.
That matters because Salah is still a player who can raise the level of the team, yet he cannot do it by himself once the match starts. He needs Emam Ashour, Marwan Attia, and Mohamed Hany to help make Egypt's attack work, and that requirement shapes how the team uses him against stronger opponents.
Egypt's World Cup test
The backdrop is a long wait. Egypt have not qualified for the World Cup since 1990, so any adjustment around Salah in a match like this sits inside a much bigger job: finding a structure that lets its most important attacker stay dangerous without forcing everything through the same route.
Lionel Messi showed one version of that balance when Argentina in 2022 won the World Cup on his fifth attempt. Salah still has the quality to tilt a match, but Monday's switch made the trade-off plain: Egypt want him close to the action, not isolated on the edge, and the players around him have to carry part of the load.
