Mohamed Salah was the primary participant substituted throughout Liverpool’s 1-0 win away to RB Leipzig, with Arne Slot admitting he needed to be cautious with the winger.
Slot raised eyebrows across the Pink Bull Area when he opted to withdraw Salah after simply over an hour, with Liverpool main Leipzig 1-0.
It got here with the Egyptian having clocked extra minutes than every other Liverpool participant earlier than kickoff, suggesting that the pinnacle coach was merely managing his No. 11’s minutes.
Nevertheless, it was nonetheless an unpopular determination with Salah himself, who was clearly annoyed with being referred to as to depart the motion so early.
Chatting with reporters after Liverpool’s newest win within the Champions League, Slot defined why he substituted Salah as he seems to the “powerful months developing.”
“It’s a tricky fixture record that now we have,” he stated.
“I stated earlier than the sport about Curtis Jones, that he hasn’t performed 90 minutes but, he solely performed two occasions 75-80 minutes. He’s not used to taking part in two video games so quick in a row.
“We’ve got some accidents now, so I’ve to take excellent care of the gamers who’ve performed lots.
“Mo is certainly one of them and Sunday is a giant sport developing once more.
“I want to make use of as many gamers as I can use for these powerful weeks and months – as a result of it’s not solely weeks, there’s powerful months developing – so they’re all ready to play.”
The significance of sustaining Salah’s health is just magnified by the continuing absence of Federico Chiesa – his de facto backup – and a brand new damage to Diogo Jota.
Luis Diaz changed him in Leipzig and Dominik Szoboszlai pushed into assault, underlined the balancing act Slot must execute with two senior attackers already sidelined.
Salah is assured to begin when Liverpool head to Arsenal on Sunday, and will achieve this up in opposition to a left-back he has terrorised prior to now, with Oleksandr Zinchenko anticipated to fill in after damage to Riccardo Calafiori.
Protecting the Egypt worldwide absolutely match is paramount, then, with the Reds in a position to acquire a giant benefit in they win on the Emirates.
