Arne Slot thinking about playing Mo Salah in DIFFERENT position | OneFootball

The debate surrounding Trent Alexander-Arnold’s potential replacement at Liverpool has ranged from denial to anger to bargaining and the rest.

If the right-back does decide not to renew his contract with the club, a very specific skillset will be absent in the team and will be decidedly difficult to replace.

Jeremie Frimpong and Denzel Dumfries are names that have been bandied around as the potential next right-back at Anfield but, as it turns out, the Chelsea game demonstrated that the ideal replacement is already on Liverpool’s books.

“I said to Trent you have some competition now because I saw today that Mo [Salah] can play as a right full-back as well!” joked head coach Slot in his post-match press conference. “The defensive effort he put in today to help the team in that part is what pleased me just as much as his goal and assist.”

Obviously this is a brilliant tongue-in-cheek comment from Liverpool’s new head coach. However, Salah’s defensive performance in a game where Liverpool’s backs were against the wall and he operated as their primary outlet in attacking transitions was anything but a joke.

Nine of Salah’s 46 touches in the game came in the space of the pitch traditionally covered by a right-back, and he made a crucial interception that caught attention on social media when Pedro Neto beat Trent Alexander-Arnold and was moving into space late on in the game.

Do Liverpool need Salah and Trent?

This, however, is not an indicator of Trent’s performance in the game either. That Neto dribble was Trent’s only unsuccessful challenge in the game according to FBRef, completing 100% of his tackles attempted and tackling 75% of dribblers he challenged.

Liverpool’s commitment down the right-hand side was a crucial part of the reason why they won the game. The combined defensive performance of Salah and Trent meant that Jadon Sancho was largely anonymous despite seeing a lot of the ball, and Salah’s goal and assist could have been more if either of the two other penalty shouts he had were given.

“The good thing is that normally if someone asks a question about Mo Salah it's always about his contract so now it's nice that you just ask me how important he is for us,” Slot added in his press conference.

If it was a secret to anyone by now, Mo Salah is essential to this club. His assist for Curtis Jones yesterday tied Thierry Henry’s Premier League assist total and his goal brought him to 13 away from the legendary Frenchman.