Arne Slot has defended Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah after claims that Chelsea targeted his defensive deficiencies.
The Reds were beaten by a last-second goal from Chelsea just before the international break as they succumbed to a third straight defeat.
Having supplied the cross for Estevao Willian to score, left-back Marc Cucurella claimed that Blues boss Enzo Maresca had deliberately looked to exploit space left by Salah‘s lack of tracking back.
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Liverpool have become far too easy to score against this season, with Salah seen as being a potential contributing factor for their porousness in defence.
Asked during his pre-match press conference on Friday to answer questions over Salah’s positioning on the pitch, Slot hit back at Cucurella’s comments.
Marc Cucurella runs with the ball during Chelsea's Premier League match against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Arne Slot defends Mohamed Salah’s positioning
Cucurella did not pull any punches when speaking about Chelsea’s plan immediately after full-time two weeks ago.
“We try to attack always because we know Salah is always ready to counter-attack, so we practice and the manager always tells us the space is maybe there,” the Spaniard told Sky Sports.
“I think they play one style of game where Salah is always ready to attack so we prepare for that. If we do a good process, maybe we will have a lot of space in there. Today it works, and we won the game in this way.”
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Confirming that he had seen the comments from Cucurella, Slot claimed that Salah’s positioning higher up the pitch had in fact almost led to Liverpool winning the game themselves.
“All our eleven players are expected to defend,” said the Liverpool head coach. “In this particular case I heard the comments of Cucurella. I also saw how they scored the 2-1.”
“But I could also show you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference for us. If that would have happened we would have had a conversation like last season when he made the difference so many times.
“When that doesn’t happen you probably get comments like this. It’s always the balance between winger and full-backs. I want our full-backs to attack as well, so we have to find the right balance. We are conceding too many crosses compared to last season, this is something I am aware of and we have to do better.”
Slot must solve Liverpool’s right-sided problem
Although it is admirable for Slot to speak up for Salah, and also true that the Egyptian could have won Liverpool the game, there can be little defence when opposition players are actively targeting a weakness – and exploiting it.
Chelsea’s success in getting in behind Liverpool’s right at the last moment of the game will give confidence to other teams that they can do the same.
As a result, Slot must fix this as a matter of urgency. He found a way last season, and although Trent Alexander-Arnold is gone and Salah may not be quite the same player, he needs to do so again.
This must start against Manchester United on Sunday. With the Red Devils employing a 3-4-3 formation, there will be far less space for Salah to run into on his right side.
So, it is vital that he does track back to help, and also finds a different way of hurting Ruben Amorim’s side when going forward. It has been the difference between drawing and losing already this season, Slot and Salah cannot let that happen again.