Arne Slot made arguably one in all the boldest decisions of his Liverpool tenure to this point by dropping Mohamed Salah for Sunday’s Premier League game against West Ham.
The under-fire Reds; manager got here out fighting in his press conference on Thursday which followed the humiliating 4-1 defeat within the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven at Anfied.
Overall the the reigning champions of England have lost nine of their last 12 matches in all competitions and look a shadow of the team that romped to the title last term.
Having spent near £500million on reinforcements in the summertime, Slot was expected to preside over one other campaign of domestic dominance but the truth has played out in another way.
Salah’s form specifically has nosedived over the course of a dramatic slump but Slot maintains there was nothing untoward in dropping the Egypt international from his starting line-up.
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He told Sky Sports: ‘Now we have more players on the bench than only Mo but I can understand you ask a matter about that.
‘Now we have played 4 games in 10 days I even have many good players as you realize so for today I selected a distinct line-up.
‘Sometimes Alex has been on the bench and sometimes Florian. So it’s all the time about who’s on the bench which I can understand nevertheless it’s also concerning the players that start and that’s the XI I selected today.’
Overall, Slot made 4 changes to his team from Wednesday night with Florian Wirtz making a return after a brief spell out with injury, while Joe Gomez featured at right-back.
Salah’s omission, nonetheless, represented the headline decision hot on the heels of the scathing criticism he has received in recent weeks.
After ending months of speculation by signing anew long-term contract Salah has dipped way below the standards he has set over the course of a stellar and trophy-laden Liverpool profession.
While his goal threat has clearly diminished, it’s the dearth of labor rate and appetite for the fight he has demonstrated of late that has really begun to grate with some sections of the fanbase.
‘How long have we got?. He’s been an absolute superstar. That is the nicest thing I can say about Salah, he’s been the go-to man for the last seven years,’ former Liverpool captain Graeme Souness said earlier this week.
‘In the event you’re picking an all-time Liverpool eleven, he’s one in all the primary names on the team sheet. I feel it’s his brother that’s turned up this season.”
He added: ‘To me, I saw an incident in that Community Shield, just on the lookout for little signals. There was a ball, he had his back to the sideline and a ball was played up and it’s going towards the left-back in that game against Crystal Palace and he could easily have gone there.
‘He’s not going to win it, he’s not a giant strong aerial type, but at the least he goes and makes life a little bit bit difficult for the full-back to do what he desires to do with it.
‘He made no try to make that challenge. I’m considering, he’s never been the bravest, he’s never going to get hurt in a 50/50, he’s cute as anything and I wouldn’t want him to because he’s such a genius at the highest end.
‘But he’s shown a scarcity of appetite and, I’m sorry, hard words sometimes are the kindest words and I feel he needs hard words that ultimately are getting him back to being the superstar that he’s been for Liverpool, but this season he has not turned up.’
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