Mohamed Salah has been left on the bench for Liverpool’s Champions League clash against Rangers on Wednesday night following a flat performance against Arsenal.
Salah started for the Reds at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, but made little impact on the match, which the visitors ended up losing 3-2. The Egyptian was substituted by Jurgen Klopp in the 69th minute having seen this attacking teammates Darwin Nunez and Roberto Firmino score and Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz assist.
Klopp has now left Salah on the bench for the 8pm kick-off against Rangers at Ibrox. The Liverpool manager has opted to start with Nunez and Firmino up front, with youngsters Harvey Elliott and Fabio Carvalho in support.
The decision will come as little surprise to Gary Neville, who is worried about Salah’s form. The 30-year-old has five goals and four assists in 12 appearances so far this campaign, but his performances have been far from the standards he set for Liverpool last season.
“Sadio Mane [leaving] came out of the blue. I watched Liverpool on Sunday [against Arsenal] and at Old Trafford, and people talk about the fact that Mane’s missing but actually, Diaz, Jota and Nunez in particular were pretty decent – they were a real threat,” he said on The Overlap, in partnership with Sky Bet.
“The most worrying performance for me from Liverpool is the world star, the one that’s been nearest to winning all the top awards, which is Mo Salah. Those runs that he used to make all the time with Mane, I didn’t see that on Sunday at all.”
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Salah signed a new three-year contract with Liverpool in August which is worth about £350,000 a week. In doing so he became the highest paid player in the club’s history – but his form has been patchy ever since.
The winger has 161 goals and 67 assists in 266 appearances for Liverpool altogether and is well established as the club’s star player. But he was fairly anonymous against Arsenal, with Liverpool instead relying on the club’s other forwards for a route to goal.
Klopp insisted he is not worried by Salah’s form following the Arsenal defeat. Explaining his decision to take Salah off for Fabinho while chasing the game, he said: “We had to defend on a high level and we tried to put Hendo (Jordan Henderson) on that side.
“Mo did unbelievably - a lot, a big big workload, he put in a real shift. That is sometimes very intense and we thought that is why we can do it with Hendo. We wanted still to win when we took the striker off.”
Liverpool need to beat Rangers on Wednesday night to help secure second place in Group A behind leaders Napoli. The Reds picked up a comfortable 2-0 win over the Scottish side at Anfield last week and will be favourites to do so again.
