Arne Slot Details Mohamed Salahs Liverpool Standoff

Liverpool manager Arne Slot opened up on the personal strife he went through while dropping Mohamed Salah, lamenting that it was “not a nice thing” to see his talisman sitting on the bench.

Yet, the plush row of seats at the London Stadium would be Salah’s position for the entirety of Liverpool’s Premier League clash with West Ham United on Sunday. The 33-year-old forward did not take kindly to his first Premier League outing as an unused substitute in five years and Slot has since revealed that he didn’t enjoy it much either.

“It is not a nice thing for him, not for a Liverpool fan and not for me,” the Dutch boss moaned to assembled media ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with Sunderland.

“A player that has been so important for us, you want to see him on the pitch. I prefer to see Mo on the pitch, scoring his goals and doing something special rather than the camera being on him when he isn’t in the game.

“He has been so important for us, for so many years, and he will be important for us in the coming days—because it is days as he goes to the Africa Cup of Nations.”

But for all his professed heartache, no one forced Slot at gunpoint to drop Salah and adopt an entirely new tactical scheme. Yet, even that solution has left the Reds boss unsatisfied.

Liverpool denied West Ham a single shot on target in one of the team’s most complete displays of an up-and-down campaign. The quality of the opposition may very well have played a part—it was not the first time this season that the Hammers have failed to force the opposition goalkeeper into a single save—but the presence of Dominik Szoboszlai on the right wing, rather than Salah, undoubtedly shored up that problematic flank.

As Slot acknowledged while hailing the return of Joe Gomez at right back, Szoboszlai “helped him a lot.”

However, shoehorning Liverpool’s standout midfielder this season into an unnatural position is not something which Slot was pleased with either. “I don’t see Dominik as a right winger for the long-term future in this club,” the openly uneasy tactician sighed.

“Dominik is a midfielder who could help us out as a fullback or as a winger if needed. I don’t expect to be in February or March and every single game Dominik is playing there. But I don’t know yet at this moment.

“He’s more of a midfielder than a winger, but the good thing about him is he can help me and us out in ­several positions if I need him in that position. In the long-term future we should have wingers ­playing as ­wingers, midfielders playing as midfielders and defenders playing as defenders.”

The likelihood of Salah being the winger on Liverpool’s right flank for the long term appears to be dwindling each day.

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