{"id":255803,"date":"2026-01-21T08:08:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/255803\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T08:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T08:08:11","slug":"arne-slot-challenges-talk-of-mo-salah-issue-look-at-my-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/255803\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot Challenges Talk of Mo Salah Issue: ‘Look At My Lineup’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot<\/a> has insisted there is no lingering issue between himself and Mohamed Salah<\/a>, telling reporters to look at his lineup and see if \u201cyou still think there\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salah has returned from his Africa Cup of Nations campaign after missing the last seven games, though there remains lingering question marks over his relationship with Slot.<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s head coach has maintained during his absence, and before, that the fallout from the explosive comments at Leeds<\/a> had been resolved, which he reiterated in Marseille. <\/p>\n

With Salah part of Liverpool\u2019s 20-man squad for the Champions League<\/a> fixture, Slot was asked if this is now a chance for a fresh start with the 33-year-old.<\/p>\n

His reply was to the point, with Slot saying: \u201cThere\u2019s been a moment in the season where I decided not to play Mo, and there\u2019s been one moment where I decided not to take him to the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor all the other games, he\u2019s always been in the squad, and I brought him in as the first substitution against Brighton<\/a>. So, at that moment of time, there\u2019s never been an issue for me. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut at that moment of time, I think the outside world could see that there was no issue. And the first time he\u2019s able to be in the squad again, he is because he trained with us today, and he\u2019s in the squad for tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd let\u2019s see for the lineup tomorrow if you still think there\u2019s an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Mo Salah ready to return to Liverpool\u2019s starting XI vs. Marseille?<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

Asked earlier in his press conference if Salah was ready to come straight back into the starting lineup, Slot embraced having another goalscoring option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith Mo, really happy and pleased that he\u2019s back, because in his absence, I think we\u2019ve done quite okay in terms of hardly conceding any chance, we start to create more and more,\u201d Slot started. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if you start to create more and more, it\u2019s really helpful to have a player like Mo Salah<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s ever been a player, I think there was one who scored more for this club, but that can score goals and can still play, I don\u2019t think I can play Ian Rush<\/a> still, then it\u2019s really helpful to have him back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would never know, but the amount of chances, the amount of ball possession against Burnley<\/a>, with Mo on the pitch, would usually mean that we would have scored more.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m really happy that he\u2019s back, because creating chances is nice, but we\u2019re only judged on the results, and that wasn\u2019t nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, hopefully, we can combine two things to create the same chances, be able to score more, and keep not conceding chances at the other end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arne Slot on his relationship with Mo Salah<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

As for his relationship with Salah, Slot insisted that it is \u201cas normal as it\u2019s always been.\u201d<\/p>\n

He went on to say: \u201cThere was only one exception, and there was the game against Inter where I didn\u2019t take him, but for all the games, he was there. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in the last game he was at Liverpool before he went to AFCON, he came in after 15, 20 minutes and I think he had a very good performance in that game. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo we were 1-0 up at the time, and we beat Brighton<\/a> 2-0. So I think he left in a situation that was good for him and for us, because we beat Brighton<\/a>, and he played again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then he went to the AFCON, again did what he usually does, scoring goals. Unfortunately, he couldn\u2019t win at the tournament, but there were other very good teams in that tournament as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut got to the semi-final, and now he\u2019s back with us. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd of course, I spoke to him today, and I\u2019m happy to have him back, because, as I said, this season I\u2019ve only had two wingers who would tell me that their favourite position that have played more than 100 minutes in the Premier League<\/a>, and that\u2019s Mo and Cody.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are other players who can definitely play in that position, really good, by the way, as well, like Jeremie Frimpong<\/a> and like Florian Wirtz<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut if I ask Florian what is his favourite position, I don\u2019t think he\u2019s going to tell me left or right winger. I think he\u2019s going to tell me another position, but he\u2019s able to play there really well. Jeremie the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot has insisted there is no lingering issue between himself and Mohamed Salah, telling reporters to look…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,23201,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-255803","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-mohamed-salah","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-top-news","12":"tag-top-stories","13":"tag-topnews","14":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}