Jamie Carragher urges Arne Slot to make bold call which could infuriate Liverpool stalwart

Jamie Carragher has called for Arne Slot to make a bold decision which could incur the wrath of one Liverpool player.

It’s a sign of how badly things are going for the Reds right now that the usually reliable Mo Salah has been a shadow of his usual self in recent weeks, with the Egyptian now going five matches without a goal after the defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.

That barren streak should really have ended yesterday as the 33-year-old had two glorious chances in the second half but failed to take either of them, with even his teammates unable to hide their disbelief at our number 11 fluffing his lines.

Carragher calls for Salah to be dropped

Speaking on the Gary Neville Podcast and in the Sky Sports studio after the game, Carragher made the case for Slot to drop Salah for Liverpool’s next two matches, given the winger’s decline in productivity.

The pundit said: “I think we’re at that stage now where Mo Salah shouldn’t be a guaranteed starter every week. I do think this is a real conundrum for the manager going forward. I don’t think Salah should be like a Virgil van Dijk where it’s like ‘first name on the teamsheet’.

“Liverpool have got two away games, in the Champions League at Frankfurt and then they go to Brentford. I don’t think Salah should start both of those games.

“He should always start at Anfield because Liverpool will be on top, around the edge of the box and more often than not he scores in those situations today; but I do think in the away games and helping your full-back, I don’t think Salah should be starting every game right now, certainly away from home, with the form he’s in.

“Would he be OK with that? Probably not. But when you get to a certain age you have to understand that, especially when you’re not playing well, where’s your argument?

“It’s different if you’re banging in the goals and your manager makes a tactical decision and you’re frustrated. I don’t think Mo Salah’s in any position to complain if he was left out of one of the next two away games.”

How likely is Slot to drop Salah?

We take Carragher’s point that no player has a God-given right to start for a club of Liverpool’s stature, and there’s no denying that Salah has been untypically wasteful in recent weeks.

However, with none of the Reds’ forwards (apart from possibly Hugo Ekitike) in particularly good form right now, will Slot be bold enough to drop our third-highest scorer of all time to the bench when the need for a positive result is becoming increasingly desperate?

Wayne Rooney recently questioned the 33-year-old’s work rate on the pitch, although that wasn’t a criticism one could label at the Egyptian yesterday. He consistently got into good positions but spurned chances that he’d normally gobble up in his sleep.

Federico Chiesa and Jeremie Frimpong are two viable options for the right winger berth if the Liverpool boss felt the need to make a change, but the Italian doesn’t seem to be trusted to start and the experiement with fielding the summer signing in attack against Galatasaray didn’t work.

With no standout candidate beating down the door to take Salah’s place in the line-up, we expect that Slot will keep faith in our number 11 to play himself out of the current slump and get back to being the goal machine that we’ve seen at Anfield for the past eight years.

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