{"id":517592,"date":"2026-03-11T19:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/517592\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T19:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T19:02:11","slug":"arne-slot-urged-to-drop-mohamed-salah-for-liverpool-again-with-cody-gakpo-backed-to-start-over-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/517592\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot urged to drop Mohamed Salah for Liverpool again with Cody Gakpo backed to start over him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/ Add as preferred source on Google <\/a> <\/p>\n

Steve Nicol has seen enough of Mohamed Salah, and wants Arne Slot to make a cut-throat decision. <\/p>\n

You could name five or six players who were nowhere near good enough during Liverpool\u2019s first-leg loss to Galatasaray<\/a>, with Salah in amongst the worst. <\/p>\n

Liverpool were toothless in attack and even worse out of possession, and something has to change if they are to turn around this deficit at Anfield<\/a> next week. <\/p>\n

Is it time for Liverpool to move on from Ibrahima Konate? <\/p>\n

Would you be too disappointed to see him leave this summer?<\/p>\n

\"IbrahimaCredit: Burak Basturk\/Middle East Images\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

One step Slot can take is to drop Salah from the lineup \u2014 that\u2019s what the former Liverpool<\/a> left-back wants to see. <\/p>\n

Steve Nicol argues for Mo Salah to be benched again at Liverpool<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t much in the way of positive post-match analysis after the final whistle sounded on Tuesday night. <\/p>\n

Jermaine Pennant washed his hands of Slot<\/a>, and most pundits wrote off any chance of making it to the latter stages of the competition off the back of that performance. <\/p>\n

Florian Wirtz<\/a> was criticised for his lacklustre return to the starting lineup, but Nicol thinks Salah should be getting the same, or worse treatment. <\/p>\n

Responding to a suggestion about Wirtz being the problem, he said on ESPN<\/a>: \u201cAs much as we\u2019re talking about Florian Wirtz, I mean you can say the same thing about Mo Salah. He does absolutely it does absolutely nothing for the team.<\/p>\n

\"MohamedPhoto by Cem Hasret Tekkesinoglu\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe needs to get dropped again. Does he just say right, Frimpong starting or Ngumoha starting and Salah you\u2019re sitting. It actually is that stage where anything really would be better.\u201d <\/p>\n

Co-host Craig Burley is so tired with the 33-year-old\u2019s inconsistency that he even puts forward the much-maligned Cody Gakpo<\/a> to start instead. <\/p>\n

He asks: \u201cWould you rather have Cody Gakpo in? At least he\u2019ll get some. At least he\u2019s powerful. At least he\u2019s physical. At least he\u2019ll run back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burley too thinks Salah\u2019s time is up. He concludes: \u201cI don\u2019t really care what you got on the bench. Mo Salah has to take his second trip to the subs bench. In terms of not starting , because he\u2019s doing absolutely, well, he\u2019s not doing a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tables have turned on Florian Wirtz <\/p>\n

Salah isn\u2019t the only Liverpool star receiving criticism. Burley calls out Wirtz for his disappointing showing as well.<\/p>\n

He says: \u201cFlorian Wirtz is going to eventually play his best football in a number 10, and if he doesn\u2019t, Liverpool are going to have to sell him because he\u2019s been a little bit of a waste thus far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wirtz got his first start after injury<\/a> against Galatasaray. To paint him with the same brush feels unfair. <\/p>\n

Who was Liverpool\u2019s worst player vs Galatasaray? \ud83d\ude2c <\/p>\n

\"IbrahimaCredit: Liverpool FC\/Cem Hasret Tekkesinoglu\/Anadolu\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget the run of form he had earlier this year. There\u2019s a world-class player in there, and any talk about him transferring out of the club this soon is frankly ridiculous. <\/p>\n

He deserves some patience from the Liverpool fanbase. As for Salah<\/a>? It\u2019s beginning to run thin. <\/p>\n

Join Our Newsletter<\/p>\n

Receive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Add as preferred source on Google Steve Nicol has seen enough of Mohamed Salah, and wants Arne Slot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[16093,53881,29564,403,99,233957],"class_list":["post-517592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-arne-slot","tag-cody-gakpo","tag-mohamed-salah","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-steve-nicol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}