Arne Slot has outlined why he chose to leave Mo Salah out of Liverpool\u2019s starting XI for their 2-0 win at West Ham on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Liverpool came into the match in crisis after a 4-1 home loss to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, which followed a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield. With pressure mounting and the club enduring their worst run of results in 70 years, Slot opted to shake things up for the trip to the London Stadium.<\/p>\n
The most striking changes came on the right flank. Joe Gomez was recalled at right-back, while Dominik Szoboszlai\u2014arguably Liverpool\u2019s standout performer this season\u2014was pushed into a right-wing role. Record signing Alexander Isak returned to lead the attack, with \u00a3116m arrival Florian Wirtz deployed just behind him. As a result, Salah, once viewed as virtually undroppable, was among the substitutes alongside Hugo Ekitike after starting against PSV.<\/p>\n
Slot was naturally asked to explain Salah\u2019s omission and said the congested schedule was the main factor.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve got more than just Mo on the bench, but I get why you\u2019re asking,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cIt\u2019s four games in ten days. I\u2019ve got a lot of strong players, and today I went with this line-up. Sometimes Isak has been on the bench, sometimes Wirtz. It\u2019s not only about those who don\u2019t start, but also the ones who do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s never easy, because I have more than 11 players who deserve to play. It\u2019s not the first time Mo has been left out, just like I\u2019ve rested Isak, Wirtz or Ekitike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Liverpool ended their dreadful spell with the 2-0 win, with Isak netting his first Premier League goal before Cody Gakpo wrapped up the points late on.<\/p>\n
Although Salah was crucial in last season\u2019s title win and earned a lucrative new deal, he has struggled to hit his usual heights this campaign, recording four goals and two assists in the league.<\/p>\n
Salah is also set to miss a chunk of Liverpool\u2019s season as he prepares to captain Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations, which runs from December 21 to January 18. With Egypt beginning their training camp on December 1 and a friendly against Nigeria scheduled for December 7, Egyptian FA president Hani Abu Rida is reportedly pushing for early access to Salah\u2014and Manchester City\u2019s Omar Marmoush. Both clubs, however, are expected to hold onto their players as long as possible while waiting for FIFA\u2019s ruling on the matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot has outlined why he chose to leave Mo Salah out of Liverpool\u2019s starting XI for their 2-0 win at West Ham on Sunday. Liverpool came into the match in crisis after a 4-1 home loss to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League, which followed a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield. With …<\/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-55742","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\/55742","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=55742"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55742\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55744,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55742\/revisions\/55744"}],"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=55742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}