‘If I left him out…’ – Arne Slot says there’s one Liverpool player he wouldn’t dare dropping | OneFootball

Arne Slot has said that he could’ve expected one Liverpool player to demand an explanation if he were to be omitted from the starting line-up.

The Reds boss has made four changes in personnel for tonight’s clash against Brighton, including a first Premier League omission of the campaign for Virgil van Dijk, who drops to the bench.

It leaves Mo Salah as the only player to start every top-flight fixture in 2024/25 for the champions, provided that he’s also in the line-up against Crystal Palace next Sunday.

Slot explains decision to keep Salah in the starting XI

The Egyptian needs two more goals/assists to break the Premier League record for the most G/A in a single season (a mission he’s determined to achieve), and speaking on Sky Sports ahead of kick-off, Gary Neville asked Slot if that made it ‘impossible’ for him to drop the 32-year-old at the Amex Stadium.

The Liverpool head coach in typically jocular fashion: “Nothing is impossible but if I’d have left him out, I think I could’ve expected a knock on my door! To prevent that from happening I just put him in the team.”

(Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

No way was Slot going to voluntarily omit Salah!

Even with the top-flight title already safely secured, there’s simply no way that Slot was going to voluntarily leave Salah out of the starting line-up, especially with our number 11 chasing a notable slice of Premier League history!

Although the Egyptian’s form has tailed off in recent weeks – he has just one goal and one assists in seven games since the start of April – it’d be a brave punter who’d back against him to come up with the two goal contributions that he needs in order to hit the unprecedented 48 G/A mark.

It was his majestic winning goal against Brighton at Anfield in November which sent the Reds to the top of the table, a position they never relinquished thereafter, and the 32-year-old will undoubtedly back himself to net against the Seagulls once more tonight.

Slot had sufficient courage to leave out Van Dijk at the Amex Stadium, but he was never going to be bold enough to drop Salah to the bench when there’s potential history in the making!