Liverpool manager Arne Slott decided to leave Mohamed Salah on the bench for a series of matches in a bid to improve results, proving that there is no greater player than the club.
The Reds legend started on the bench in consecutive games against West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds and Brighton, and was absent from the bench against the Hammers and Leeds.
Salah came on as a substitute in the first half of the game against Brighton due to an injury to Joe Gomez and provided an assist for Hugo Ekitike in the final game before heading to the Africa Cup of Nations against Egypt.
Latest information on Mo Salah’s future at Liverpool
The 33-year-old star put his future in doubt earlier this month when he sensationally claimed at Anfield that there was no longer any relationship between him and Slott.
Slott said he was surprised by the attacker’s comments, but added that the winger has always been “respectful” and does not feel their relationship is broken.
It has since been reported that Richard Hughes will be in talks with Salah’s agent as the club do not want to sign the forward in January and hope to make plans for him to join the team in the future.
This suggests that Liverpool want to move on from this situation and do not expect their superstar to sit on the bench for long when he returns from AFCON.
Salah could return to the starting lineup when he returns next month, but Liverpool have a current starter who should be left out of the side.
Liverpool starters need treatment for Mo Salah
Slot has to be ruthless and remove Ibrahima Konate from the starting lineup after his performances in recent weeks and months have not been good enough.
His goal in Wolves’ 2-1 win over Old Gold on Saturday, when the France international was brought down too easily in the air, was unfortunately the latest in a string of mistakes this season.
In August, pundit Chris Sutton said Konate was “absolutely stinky” against Bournemouth. Jamie Carragher also claimed he was “all over the place” in November.
Earlier this month, Slott said: “Unfortunately for him (Konate), he does a lot of things well, but he does a little bit too much at the crime scene. That’s something I’ve heard people say in the UK before.”
Liverpool podcaster and author Eddie Gibbs also described him last month as “Liverpool’s most worrying fault line” and “like a footballer battling a reflection of himself”, and looking at his stats this season it would be hard to agree with all of those assessments.
Known (25/26) | premier league | champions league |
|---|---|---|
Appearance | 18 | 6 |
dribbled past | 5 times | 1x |
Error led to shot | 3 | 1 |
A mistake led to a goal | 0 | 1 |
penalty committed | 1 | 0 |
Number of fouls committed | twenty two | 6 |
Statistics by Sofascore | ||
As you can see from the table above, the French international has already made six mistakes leading to shots, goals and penalties in the Premier League and Champions League this season.
According to Sofascore, Konate has only committed five such errors in the last two competitions of the 2024/25 season, which shows that the central defender has regressed this term.
The 26-year-old’s failure, whose poor defending against Leeds was analyzed by Carragher in the clip above earlier this month, was too much of a miss alongside Virgil van Dijk at the back of the Reds.
That’s why Slott needs to replicate Salah’s decision at Konate by leaving him out of the side for a series of matches, whether signing a new centre-back in January or playing another player like Andy Robertson or Conor Bradley at the back.
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Considering the criticism from fans, pundits, ex-pros and others, Konate appears to be the weak link in Liverpool’s squad at the moment, and the manager will therefore need to find a replacement for him in the starting XI in the coming weeks.
