Arne Slot made arguably one of the boldest decisions of his Liverpool tenure to date by dropping Mohamed Salah for Sunday’s Premier League game against West Ham.
The under-fire Reds; manager came out fighting in his press conference on Thursday which followed the humiliating 4-1 defeat in 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 close to £500million on reinforcements in the summer, Slot was expected to preside over another campaign of domestic dominance but the reality has played out differently.
Salah’s form in particular 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: ‘We have more players on the bench than only Mo but I can understand you ask a question about that.
‘We have played four games in 10 days I have many good players as you know so for today I chose a different line-up.
‘Sometimes Alex has been on the bench and sometimes Florian. So it’s always about who is on the bench which I can understand but it’s also about the players that start and that’s the XI I chose today.’
Overall, Slot made four changes to his team from Wednesday night with Florian Wirtz making a return after a short spell out with injury, while Joe Gomez featured at right-back.
Salah’s omission, however, 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 career.
While his goal threat has clearly diminished, it is the lack of work 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. This 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.
‘If you’re picking an all-time Liverpool eleven, he’s one of the first names on the team sheet. I think it’s his brother that’s turned up this season.”
He added: ‘To me, I saw an incident in that Community Shield, just looking 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 big strong aerial type, but at least he goes and makes life a little bit difficult for the full-back to do what he wants to do with it.
‘He made no attempt to make that challenge. I’m thinking, 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 top end.
‘But he’s shown a lack of appetite and, I’m sorry, hard words sometimes are the kindest words and I think 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.’