Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has claimed that Arne Slot needs to drop Mohamed Salah as he’s “reached the stage now where the team can’t carry him anymore”.
The Reds lost 3-0 to Manchester City over the weekend as Liverpool lost their fifth game of the season, one more than they lost in the entirety of last term.
Defnding champions Liverpool are now eighth in the Premier League table, four points behind second-placed Man City and a further four points adrift of leaders Arsenal.
Salah has been underperforming, like most of the Liverpool starting XI this season, with the Egypt international scoring just five goals in 16 matches in all competitions.
And now Nicol reckons the time has come to bring Salah out of the team to give another Liverpool player a chance to impress.
When asked whether he would bench Salah, Nicol told ESPN FC: “Yes I would. The second part of the question is, for who?
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“You have to try and figure a way out to get him back to somewhere near his best. And so far, playing him and playing him and playing him isn’t working.
“I got excited when he scored a couple of goals in a couple of games [against Brentford and Aston Villa], but his overall performance hasn’t really changed much other than those two goals.
“Now the only other thing you can do is sit him on the bench, Sit down, have a look, maybe a different perspective.
“Then play him the next game and let’s see if there’s any sort of reaction because unfortunately he’s reached the stage now where the team can’t carry him anymore. Simple as that.”
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When put to Nicol whether it would be worth sticking with Salah for now ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations, he added: “Unfortunately there’s an answer to that: What is the point? The guy is not giving you anything!
“You could look at it the other way and say: ‘He’s going to be away for two or three months so we may as well try and figure something out now. Why am I going to wait on a guy who’s giving me nothing? I need to be proactive here. I can’t just sit on my hands and let it happen and hope and pray that all of a sudden somebody waves a magic wand and he becomes the Egyptian King again.’
“I absolutely think he needs to do something and my own person opinion, I would sit him.”
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