We were made to witness one of the rarest occurrences in Liverpool‘s trip to London, as hero and star-man, Mohamed Salah was benched by Arne Slot. The fans and even neutral watchers would’ve been shell-shocked by Arne Slot’s bold but risky decision not to include Mohamed Salah in the team sheet. The decision further becomes a talking point when we consider the fact that Liverpool comfortably won the game against West Ham. As they were going through an extremely rough patch, this win does raise the question. Is Salah the problem?
Mohamed Salah and Arne Slot
Arne Slot did not just drop a star player; he dropped a Liverpool and Premier League legend. You may criticise Slot’s management in general. But you have to give him the flowers for engaging in such a bold move. Over the years, Salah has always been the first name on the Liverpool team sheet. Irrespective of the opposition and situation. This season was no different. Salah started every single league game for Liverpool. And this happened despite the extremely poor results recently. However, Slot had had enough of the disappointing results. He decided to make a change to the way they functioned. This consequently resulted in Salah being benched.
Without Salah, surprisingly, Liverpool were absolutely clinical. Alexander Isak, who was going through a goalless season so far for Liverpool in the league, turned up and provided the breakthrough goal. Florian Wirtz, who has been having a shockingly bad season, did really well and owned the number 10 position he was assigned. So, there was absolutely no problem in the way Liverpool played, and it certainly did not look like they were missing their star winger in Mohamed Salah.
Salah’s similar situation with Klopp
This whole story of Salah being dropped to the Liverpool bench takes us back to a similar situation. It happened with former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. It was during April 2024, the backend of a hectic season for Liverpool. And at this point, Salah was slowly having a dip (for his sky-high standards). So Klopp made the decision to bench Salah and give him a rest. This completely did not land well for the Egyptian. As he was being readied to be brought on as a substitute, he had a very open spat with his manager. And the situation further worsened with Mohamed Salah and Klopp clearly having a go at each other.
It got so heated to a level that Salah’s teammate Darwin Nunez had to step in and distance Salah from Klopp. And away from the field, the highly visible drama continued in the pressers as well. As Salah told the media, “If I speak, there will be fire.” This clearly suggested the 33-year-old was still unhappy with the manager.
Salah’s season so far
Liverpool are having their worst season in about 70 years, which is an absurd number. Arne Slot is being fired from all directions as he continues to face the heat of the manager’s hot seat. Multiple players are being blamed for the shocking form and Salah is being heavily targeted as well.
However, the criticism and rage from the fans are completely understandable. Salah is having an all-time low when it comes to his Liverpool career so far. The Egyptian has the occasional dips in form at times, but this is a proper form slump that has been unprecedented for the Premier League legend.
Conclusion
Mohamed Salah will have a lot to prove to his manager, Arne Slot, and most importantly to the critics. It will be extremely interesting to see if Slot continues to bench him and if he does, will Salah consider the option to leave Anfield and Liverpool?
As featured on Walkon.com