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Arne Slot has opened up on his reasoning for dropping Mohamed Salah following the Liverpool winger’s attack on his head coach.
Salah took aim at the club and Slot in an extraordinary interview on Saturday, in which he accused Liverpool of “throwing him under the bus” and suggested that someone wanted him out, while also claiming his relationship with his boss had broken down.
His tirade came after he was named on the bench for a third game in a row against Leeds on Saturday, with the 33-year-old suggesting afterward that he could play his final game for the club this week.
Liverpool has actually gone unbeaten in the three games that Salah hasn’t started recently, although that run does include disappointing draws against Sunderland and Leeds, having given away a two-goal lead in the latter.
Salah only came off the bench in one of those games, against Sunderland, which is a far cry from the position he has found himself in ever since he made the move to Anfield.
Having dropped him completely from his squad to face Inter Milan in the Champions League, Slot revealed why he had decided to bench Salah in the first place, with the decision coming after a run of nine defeats in 12 games.
"We, as a team, struggled this season and more and more last season with the game plans other teams had against us,” Slot said in his pre-match press conference.
"So I am not talking about the long ball style, which is something, teams do against us now.
"I have tried to come up with my solutions because that is my job. We have tried many things and we looked very vulnerable after all the things I've tried against Forest and PSV.
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"I decided to pay with an extra midfielder in the game against West Ham. We won the game so I decided to do it one more time against Sunderland.
"At half-time, I brought him [Salah] in. Then against Leeds, we faced a 5-3-2 and I decided to play a 4-4-2 diamond if you want to talk about it like this with Hugo Ekitike a bit off the right side and Cody Gakpo a bit off the left and Florian Wirtz in between.
"I could have played Mo off the right but I decided to play Hugo."
Doubts now linger over whether Salah may have already played his final game for the club. The Egyptian revealed he told his family to attend this weekend’s game at home to Brighton, when he would make a farewell appearance before heading off to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Having been dropped for the Inter game though, Liverpool will have to make a decision on whether he will return to the squad on Saturday.
Salah has since posted on social media, having shared a picture of himself on his own at the club’s gym at the AXA Training Centre.
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