Arne Slot has hinted he could once again leave Mohamed Salah out of the starting lineup when Liverpool face Sunderland next week.<\/p>\n
Liverpool travel to take on Regis Le Bris\u2019 in-form Black Cats on Wednesday, as they look to secure back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since September.<\/p>\n
Salah\u2019s place is far from guaranteed<\/p>\n
Speaking after Liverpool\u2019s 2-0 victory over West Ham, Slot suggested Salah may not walk straight back into the XI.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve played four games in ten days. These players are top quality,\u201d the 47-year-old told BBC MOTD. \u201cMo has been hugely important for the club and will continue to be, so we\u2019ll see what happens on Wednesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
It would be a surprising decision, especially after Salah was benched for the win over West Ham \u2014 a call that ultimately didn\u2019t harm Liverpool, with others such as Florian Wirtz stepping up.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s performance vs West Ham
\n\u2022 1.26 xG
\n\u2022 5 shots on target
\n\u2022 3 big chances created
\n\u2022 2 big chances missed
\n\u2022 20 touches in the opposition box<\/p>\n
A rare selection gamble from Slot?<\/p>\n
Seeing Salah left out for two straight league games would be highly unusual. The last time it happened was in the 2023\/24 season, when he was injured \u2014 not dropped.<\/p>\n
To be clear, the win at the London Stadium wasn\u2019t down to Salah being left out. And many fans would welcome his return to the starting XI against Sunderland.<\/p>\n
But with Liverpool\u2019s season stuttering and pressure mounting on Slot, a bold stance might be his way of reminding the squad what\u2019s expected.<\/p>\n
And there are few decisions bolder than benching a modern Liverpool icon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arne Slot has hinted he could once again leave Mohamed Salah out of the starting lineup when Liverpool face Sunderland next week. Liverpool travel to take on Regis Le Bris\u2019 in-form Black Cats on Wednesday, as they look to secure back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time since September. Salah\u2019s place is far from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":55787,"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-55786","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\/12\/Arne-Slot-Mo-Salah-Sunderland-Liverpool-Premier-League-1200x674.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55786","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=55786"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55786\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55788,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55786\/revisions\/55788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}