Early this morning, Liverpool suffered a 1-4 defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League. The Mirror said that during the game, when Liverpool lost the ball and Salah was passed, the Egyptian star gave up chasing, while Slott was right i...
Early this morning, Liverpool suffered a 1-4 defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League. The Mirror said that during the game, when Liverpool lost the ball and Salah was passed, the Egyptian star gave up chasing, while Slott was right in front of him but turned a blind eye.
Salah is just one of many players who have been criticized individually recently, and Liverpool star Souness is one of the strongest criticisms. Souness said this week that Salah "lacks fighting spirit" and "hasn't performed as well" this season. He singled out a specific incident in the Community Shield at the start of the season, where Salah made no effort to contest a long ball into his area.
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney once said that Slott should remove Salah from the lineup to send a signal to the locker room: the Egyptian star's lack of running performance is unacceptable.
But there was a telling moment in the crushing defeat to PSV that revealed Sloter was unlikely to take such drastic action. In the 56th minute of the game, with the score 1-1, PSV passed the ball to midfielder Mauro Junior. Salah stepped forward to press, but only made the most basic defensive attempt, and was easily passed by Junior. At this time, he was only a few yards away from Slott on the sideline.
Then the PSV player broke into Liverpool's open midfield area and sent a precise through ball through the defense. Gus Tier touched the ball and rewritten the score to 2-1.
This goal highlighted many of Liverpool's problems, but it especially exposed Salah's defensive slack. He didn't even try to catch up after being passed, and Slott's figure standing silently on the sidelines said it all.
After the game, Jamie Carragher said that Salah's "legs have lost their vitality", but called on other Liverpool players to step up when Salah, Van Dijk and Alisson are no longer as reliable as before.
Sarah will leave the team to represent Egypt in the African Cup of Nations next month, but with the intensive schedule, whether Slott dares to move him out of the starting lineup in the next few weeks deserves attention.
