Liverpool picked up yet another win in the Champions League on Wednesday as they came through a difficult game against RB Leipzig.
On paper, Leipzig were technically the Reds’ hardest game of their European group stage campaign.
The German side were their pot 1 away from home draw, meaning that, in theory at least, the trip to the Red Bull Arena should have been the most difficult of Liverpool’s eight fixtures.
With that in mind, Arne Slot should be absolutely delighted to have gotten it out of the way with his perfect European record intact.
It wasn’t all straightforward for Liverpool, though. They were troubled on occasion by Leipzig and almost paid for not adding a second goal to Darwin Nunez’s first-half tap-in.
That Nunez goal came after Mohamed Salah had directed a header which looked to have been creeping in at the far post. But the Uruguayan made sure and by doing so resigned Salah to a goal-less outing. A surprise substitution in the second-half compounded a frustrating evening for the Egyptian King.
Arne Slot explains Mohamed Salah substitution
Salah does not like to be substituted. It does not happen very regularly in fairness, but whenever it does, the 32-year-old let’s everybody know it.
Wednesday night in Leipzig was no different. Salah was visibly annoyed as he exited the field, throwing his arms out just a little and shaking his head for good measure.
BBC pundit Pat Nevin noticed the negative reaction from Salah but it was not anything over the top at all.
Nevertheless, any time Liverpool’s talisman is taken off it creates headlines and, as a result, Slot was asked about his decision to take Salah off in just the 63rd minute.
READ MORE: Pat Nevin in awe of ‘perfect thing’ he saw from Mohamed Salah vs RB Leipzig
“It’s a tough fixture list that we have so, I said before the game about Curtis Jones that he hasn’t played 90 minutes yet, he only played two times 75 or 85 minutes, he is not used to playing two games so fast in a row,” began the Liverpool head coach.
“We have some injuries now so I have to take good care of the players that have played a lot and Mo is one of them and on Sunday, a big game is coming up again.
“So, I need to use as many players as I can use for these next tough weeks and these tough months that are coming up, so that they are all prepared to play.”
Did Arne Slot make the right decision?
Salah is never going to be happy coming off the pitch, especially when he hasn’t scored a goal yet.
Had Nunez allowed his header to creep in past Peter Gulacsi, then maybe we would not have seen the reaction we did from Mo.
Having said that, though, the No.11 is going to have to accept at some stage that it is for his own good that he’s being taken off.
Salah is 32 now and if he wants to keep playing for as long as he obviously intends to, then it will do him no good to play such intense fixtures twice a week.
Had Liverpool had a slightly less taxing game coming up at the weekend it’s likely that Salah would have played the full 90 in the Champions League. But it’s Arsenal. Mo doesn’t need telling what a big game it is. Consequently, we’re certain that Slot made the right call with Salah and although the winger’s frustration bubbled over a little, he’ll surely know that too.
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