Arne Slot has confidence that Mo Salah will return to form and has spoken about how the Egyptian’s reaction to being dropped was normal.
At this stage last season, Salah had seven goals and seven assists in all competitions. This time around, he has three of each.
There has been a clear drop-off in the Egyptian’s performances, and this led to him being dropped, or rotated, against Eintracht Frankfurt.
He was visibly frustrated but Slot thinks this is normal, explaining to press including the Liverpool Echo: “I hope he is not ever going to take it well, because the moment you are going to take it well then you miss the fire.
“That goes for every player by the way, not only Mo. The moment you start to accept that you are not playing anymore and you are fine with that, then you miss the fire that is needed to play at this level.
“My experience in general is that it’s quite hard for a player to understand why he’s not playing. They all see football through their eyes, and again that’s a good thing.
“If you go over to all 20 players now to name a line-up, I’d be surprised if there’s one player who doesn’t put himself in.
“That’s not to say that they don’t understand we have more than a few good players here and once in a while somebody isn’t playing.
“But if we have to play a Champions League final tomorrow and you ask them to make a line-up, I’d be surprised if one of them doesn’t put themselves in – except maybe youngsters Rio (Ngumoha) or Trey (Nyoni).”
Arne Slot isn’t worried by Mo Salah’s missed chances
While some of Salah’s issues have been influenced by him playing wider than last season, when he has got into goalscoring positions, he hasn’t been clinical enough.
According to FotMob, he has missed four big chances in the Premier League so far and has a shot conversion rate of 13.3 percent.
Asked if this is a worry, Slot responded: “The way he trains, and when we do finishing drills, you cannot lose that.
“The only thing is we have to keep bringing him into those positions and he has to bring himself into those positions.
“There are a lot of things that can happen when you get older, but if I can select one player who has the ball 12, 13 yards from goal and he should score that to save my reputation, I would have Mo in that position.
“Now he needs to show that he can get into those positions.”
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