On Sunday, Mo Salah experienced something rare\u2014he spent an entire Premier League match on the substitutes\u2019 bench as Liverpool defeated West Ham. Having featured in nearly every minute of the Reds\u2019 season until now, Salah was notably absent from the starting XI at the London Stadium and wasn\u2019t brought on during the 2-0 victory.<\/p>\n
Despite calls from Wayne Rooney to drop the Egyptian due to a relatively quiet goal return\u2014just five goals so far this season\u2014Sky Sports\u2019 Peter Smith described the decision to bench Salah as sending \u201cshockwaves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot praises Salah\u2019s professionalism
\nSpeaking to the media on Tuesday ahead of Liverpool\u2019s upcoming game against Sunderland, Arne Slot was asked about Salah\u2019s reaction to being left out. The Reds\u2019 manager told Liverpool Echo:<\/p>\n
> \u201cIt\u2019s natural for a player to be unhappy when he isn\u2019t playing. He wasn\u2019t the only one. But the way he handled it was as expected from a professional. He was very supportive of his teammates and conducted himself really well. You can\u2019t perform at your best every three days if emotions get in the way, but Mo is disciplined. He remains a top professional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salah likely motivated to prove himself
\nWhile Slot publicly defended Salah, the player himself will have felt the sting of being dropped. The expectation is that he will accept the decision professionally and aim to reclaim his place in the starting XI.<\/p>\n
Slot\u2019s decision also highlighted the depth of Liverpool\u2019s squad and the need for high-level performances from all players. With a congested schedule looming\u2014three matches before next Tuesday\u2014rotation is crucial to manage player workload.<\/p>\n
Though Salah may have been disappointed to miss the West Ham game, he is aware that his form has dipped compared to his usual standards. With matches coming thick and fast, it\u2019s expected he will return to the lineup soon.<\/p>\n
As Mail Sport\u2019s Lewis Steele noted, the temporary omission could spark added determination from Salah to remind Slot that he remains the team\u2019s key attacking force. Even if he doesn\u2019t start the next match, it\u2019s likely he will feature soon\u2014and he could even make a decisive impact from the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Sunday, Mo Salah experienced something rare\u2014he spent an entire Premier League match on the substitutes\u2019 bench as Liverpool defeated West Ham. Having featured in nearly every minute of the Reds\u2019 season until now, Salah was notably absent from the starting XI at the London Stadium and wasn\u2019t brought on during the 2-0 victory. Despite …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":55826,"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-55995","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\/resize-55.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55995","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=55995"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55997,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55995\/revisions\/55997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}