Arne Slot is set to become Liverpool’s next manager (Getty)
Graeme Souness has warned Arne Slot that he will inherit an ‘issue’ with Mohamed Salah when he becomes Liverpool manager.
Salah has struggled for form in recent weeks with just one goal in his last six appearances for Liverpool.
The Egypt international was also involved in a touchline bust-up with Jurgen Klopp during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw away to West Ham on Saturday.
And Souness believes Salah could pose an immediate problem for Slot, who is set to reach an agreement with Liverpool, as soon as he arrives at Anfield this summer.
‘He [Slot] is also coming into a situation that I had thought was extremely healthy, and I said so when Klopp announced he was leaving. But, of late, Liverpool have shown a vulnerability and weakness I did not think existed. The season has gone flat and the title has gone now. I did not see this coming,’ Souness wrote in his column for MailOnline.
‘They have gone from the team I believed were going to win it, who did not have to play well to win because they had so much firepower, to a team struggling to score a goal.
Mohamed Salah was involved in a bust-up with Jurgen Klopp during Liverpool’s draw vs West Ham (Getty)
‘Slot will also inherit, if it is not sorted sooner, the issue of Mo Salah. He has dropped way below the levels we know of him and has lost his focus, for whatever reason, in the second half of the season.
‘Do Liverpool sell him this summer? I would not be surprised if there was an agreement last summer for him to stay another year and then go off to Saudi Arabia.
‘If he has had his head turned, it’s better off him going, and I’m sure a new manager would agree. Slot will have enough on his plate without a transfer saga over Salah.’
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Souness also believes Erik ten Hag’s poor season with Manchester United should also dampen expectations with Slot’s arrival at Liverpool.
‘My greatest concern if Arne Slot is the man to replace Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool is not his relative inexperience, but more so the Dutch league he is coming from,’ Souness added.
‘We only have to look at how Erik ten Hag has fared up the road at Manchester United to learn the pitfalls of a manager who puts his trust in players who were very good in the Eredivisie.
‘Ten Hag thought so much of his Ajax winger Antony that Man United paid £82 million for him, and he has been a major disappointment. There are others at Old Trafford and beyond – Donny van de Beek, Andre Onana, Lisandro Martínez, Memphis Depay, Hakim Ziyech and Davy Klaassen, all players with big reputations who have not cut it in our league after starring in Holland.’
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