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Liverpool has been told that Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz could benefit from Mohamed Salah's absence from the team over the next few weeks.
Salah signed off for Liverpool for the year with a substitute appearance against Brighton over the weekend before jetting off to link up with his Egypt teammates ahead of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations.
Despite playing well off the bench against Brighton, Salah has endured a tough season so far, which has led to him not starting in any of Liverpool's last five games.
Liverpool won three of those and drew the other two, and there have been promising signs that the team is turning its season around after an awful run of form earlier in the campaign.
Although Salah was all smiles after returning to the fold on Saturday, Liverpool knows what the Egyptian is capable of if he continues to be restricted to a bit-part role at Anfield.
His controversial chat with reporters in the Elland Road mixed zone earlier this month caused unnecessary problems for Arne Slot, and former Liverpool striker John Aldridge thinks that Liverpool's two most-expensive signings could benefit from Salah being out of the picture altogether until January.
“With Salah now gone for a period with Egypt and possibly not returning, I’d like to see Wirtz get a run in his position on the right side, as he may offer more than Mo has in that role over the last few months,” Aldridge said in his column for the Irish Independent.
“I’m also confident Isak will be a good long-term addition for Liverpool when he finds his feet and it may be that the removal of a huge presence like Salah from that forward line will free up Wirtz and Isak to feel like this is their time to take over the mantle.
“Salah will be remembered as a Liverpool great, there’s no doubt about that, but no player is bigger than the club and if your form is as bad as Mo’s has been this season, decisions have to be made.
"Being dropped is tough to take for a player of Salah’s stature and if he can’t cope with being on the bench and helping the team in a different way, maybe the time has come for him to call time on his career at Liverpool.”
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