Arne Slot is about to be given an option to replace Mohamed Salah in the starting XI and must take it - opinion
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Mohamed Salah has written himself plenty of records during his stellar nine years in the Premier League with Liverpool.However, on Sunday, the Egyptian earned himself one he will not be pleased to look back upon.Having failed to find the net during the late win over Nottingham Forest, Salah made it nine Premier League matches without a goal for the first time ever. Surely there’s no way back to Salah’s best from here?
11 actively hindering Liverpool at this point, Slot must bring the returning Jeremie Frimpong back to start on the right wing during next weekend’s visit of West Ham.Jeremie Frimpong offers Salah solutionSlot confirmed that Frimpong will hopefully be back in contention for next Saturday’s game, and while there may be a clamour to get him involved at right-back, he simply must relieve Salah.The legendary Egypt captain looks for all the world like a player who is just no longer physically capable of making an impact for Liverpool.Photo by Carl Recine/Getty ImagesREAD MORE: Liverpool player ratings: 3/10 for Curtis Jones as Arne Slot’s side scrape past Nottingham ForestFederico Chiesa was the player who came in on the Liverpool right to replace Salah, but the Italian is similarly lacking in the necessary steel to play right now. It has to be Frimpong.Back in December, Salah could not believe that he had been benched and took aim at Slot in the public sphere for the decision.
Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images Right-back problems can wait for LiverpoolPerhaps the person most delighted to see Frimpong return next week will be Dominik Szoboszlai, who is likely sick of his shifts at right-back.But as Szoboszlai – and latterly Curtis Jones – showed against Forest, Liverpool can struggle on playing midfielders on the right of the defence for now.What they cannot afford to do is to keep on playing Salah when he is actively harming their chances of winning matches.Another option for Liverpool could be Rio Ngumoha, who was arguably Liverpool’s best player during his cameo at the City Ground. The right-back problems can wait, in Salah’s continued downturn, Liverpool have a much more pressing issue.Join Our NewsletterReceive a digest of our best Liverpool content each week direct to your mailbox