Liverpool manager Arne Slot opened up on the personal strife he went through while dropping Mohamed Salah, lamenting that it was “not a nice thing” to see his talisman sitting on the bench.
Yet, the plush row of seats at the London Stadium would be Salah’s position for the entirety of Liverpool’s Premier League clash with West Ham United on Sunday. The 33-year-old forward did not take kindly to his first Premier League outing as an unused substitute in five years and Slot has since revealed that he didn’t enjoy it much either.
“It is not a nice thing for him, not for a Liverpool fan and not for me,” the Dutch boss moaned to assembled media ahead of Wednesday’s meeting with Sunderland.
“A player that has been so important for us, you want to see him on the pitch. I prefer to see Mo on the pitch, scoring his goals and doing something special rather than the camera being on him when he isn’t in the game.
“He has been so important for us, for so many years, and he will be important for us in the coming days—because it is days as he goes to the Africa Cup of Nations.”
But for all his professed heartache, no one forced Slot at gunpoint to drop Salah and adopt an entirely new tactical scheme. Yet, even that solution has left the Reds boss unsatisfied.
