Since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations in January, Liverpool’s top scorer has delivered 5 goals and 5 assists last season. The conflict with Slot is history, Salah has once again shown why he has to be on the pitch, while in March it became clear that he will leave the club after the end of the season. So when Liverpool went to Paris for the first quarter-final of the Champions League, it was surprising for many Liverpool supporters to see Salah sitting unused on the bench throughout the game that ended without a goal for the Reds, two to PSG. The explanation the Slot gives is in surprising.
Yes, there was a lot of one-way traffic towards the Liverpool goal, but Liverpool cannot travel to the Champions League quarter-finals on the defensive. Jürgen Klopp would never have done that. So when we hear Slot’s explanation of why he didn’t use the club’s biggest attacking star, we are stunned.
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“The end of the game was pure survival for us. There was a period of 20-25 minutes where we just defended. Mo has a lot of quality, but it is better to save Mohamed’s energy for our upcoming matches, when his job would have been to defend in his own half of the field for 25 minutes,” Slot told the club’s website.
Save Salah’s energy for upcoming matches? We’re talking about Champions League quarter-finals, not a League Cup match against Barnsley!
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