Barring a shock reconciliation between player and manager that always seemed unlikely, there always seemed a good chance that Mohamed Salah’s decision to lash out after being benched for three matches would see the Egyptian who carried the Reds to the title last year excluded from the next match.
That now appears to have been confirmed to be what will happen, with reliable reports claiming a decision has been made hy manager Arne Slot and Liverpool’s upper management to leave Salah out of the travelling
squad as the team prepare to head to Italy to take on Inter Milan on Tuesday in the Champions League.
While Salah’s personal form has been poor this season, similarly underperforming players have maintained their places in Slot’s starting eleven, leading to a situation where Salah felt as though he was being made out to be the scapegoat for the club’s poor form a year after carrying them to the Premier League title.
Last season, Salah put in what many saw as the best individual season in the history of the Premier League by an attacker—a season heavily front-loaded for both Salah and the club, with the Reds’ form and results dropping off after Christmas. Neither Salah nor Liverpool have looked exceptional at any point in 2025.
While it’s fair to ask questions about Salah’s apparent decline, or point to the unprofessionalism of his lashing out, it’s hard not to have some sympathy for a player who has done so much for the club and does appear to have been singalled out more than others for blame now by the coach and upper management.
Without Salah, Liverpool would have struggled to finish in the top four last season, and while Slot has his first six months of good results at the club to fall back on, Salah has eight seasons of excellence and is arguably the best attacker in the history of the Premier League and one of Liverpool’s top three players of all time.
Salah’s post-match statements on Saturday were wrong, helping neither him nor the club. Yet he also very much deserves better from Slot, who given the side’s struggles in 2025 very much owes Salah for his continued employment—and from upper management figures like Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes.
