Arne Slot was concerned about what might be written and said with regard to him “rotating” his team for their clash with Frankfurt in the Champions League on Wednesday, but there won’t be many thinking Mohamed Salah’s absence from the starting lineup is a case of resting the Egyptian’s 33-year-old legs after his display against Manchester United.
“‘Rotate’ always comes across as if, ‘Oh, let someone else play a little bit as well’,” Slot said.
“But I said many times, we have a lot of good players and I can use them all. If you play three games in seven days, it would maybe be smart to use them all as well. That’s why, also because we were 1-0 down, but also because we need to use the squad, we made three substitutions after 55 minutes against United.
“We will use a lot of players again tomorrow, as we will on Saturday. It is then a certain rotation but ‘rotation’ could also come across as ‘We are good enough to play a few others.’ No, no, no – we have more than 11 players that can start a game of football for us and that’s why we’ve done that until now multiple times.
“And we might do this tomorrow as well.”
Slot made five changes in total to the side which lost to United, with Jeremie Frimpong, Andy Robertson, Curtis Jones and Florian Wirtz all coming into the team, but Hugo Ekitike for Salah is undoubtedly the standout call.
This is the first time since he joined the club in 2017 that Salah hasn’t been named in Liverpool’s starting XI for two consecutive Champions League games.
It’s a decision made far more significant given this is a game in which Slot is desperate to stop the rot after four consecutive defeats – Liverpool haven’t lost five on the bounce since 1953 – including the loss to Galatasaray last time out in the Champions League.
Salah would surely be starting what’s not quite a must-win game, but a game they would really love to win to avert their self-diagnosed crisis, if he was in any sort of form.
There have been suggestions, for the first time in his Liverpool career, that the Egyptian doesn’t deserve a spot in the team, hurting Liverpool by not defending while failing to nullify that weakness through his goals and assists.
Jones has come in for Mac Allister, which comes as no surprise after the Argentinian’s similar slump this term, Milos Kerkez has been taken out of the firing line having been given pelters for much of his Reds career so far, while Frimpong earned a start having arguably been Liverpool’s biggest threat off the bench against United.
As Slot was all too eager to point out, this isn’t a “rotated” team, it’s the one he feels is best equipped to beat Frankfurt. Make no mistake, Salah has been dropped.