Arne Slot left Mo Salah out of Liverpool\u2019s starting lineup for Sunday\u2019s trip to West Ham, later outlining his reasons following the 2-0 victory.<\/p>\n
Liverpool had fallen to a ninth defeat in 12 matches after their 4-1 loss to PSV in midweek, which came just days after a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest. With pressure mounting and the team enduring their worst run in 70 years, Slot made several big changes for the visit to the London Stadium.<\/p>\n
Notably, he reshuffled the right side of the team. Joe Gomez returned at right-back, Dominik Szoboszlai was pushed out to the right wing, and \u00a3125m signing Alexander Isak was restored up front with Florian Wirtz operating as the No.10.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Sky Sports, Slot said he understood why Salah\u2019s omission drew attention, but stressed the need for rotation with four games in 10 days. He noted that other big players, including Isak, Wirtz and Ekitike, had also been benched at times, and insisted it was simply a case of choosing from a strong squad.<\/p>\n
The changes paid off, as Liverpool snapped their poor run with a 2-0 win. Isak scored his first Premier League goal for the club, while Cody Gakpo added a late second.<\/p>\n
Salah, who was instrumental in last season\u2019s title win and rewarded with a lucrative new contract, has struggled to find his usual levels this term, producing just four goals and two assists in the league. He is also set to miss a significant spell soon as he prepares to captain Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, which runs from December 21 to January 18.<\/p>\n
With Egypt\u2019s training camp beginning on December 1 and a friendly planned against Nigeria on December 7, reports suggest FA president Hani Abu Rida is pushing for Salah \u2014 along with Manchester City\u2019s Omar Marmoush \u2014 to join up with the national team early. Liverpool and City, meanwhile, want their players available for as long as FIFA regulations allow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot left Mo Salah out of Liverpool\u2019s starting lineup for Sunday\u2019s trip to West Ham, later outlining his reasons following the 2-0 victory. Liverpool had fallen to a ninth defeat in 12 matches after their 4-1 loss to PSV in midweek, which came just days after a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest. With pressure …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":55743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/resize-22-1.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55741"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55741\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55745,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55741\/revisions\/55745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}