Mohamed Salah was the first player substituted during Liverpool’s 1-0 victory away at RB Leipzig, prompting head coach Arne Slot to acknowledge the need for caution with the star winger.
Slot’s decision to withdraw Salah just over an hour into the match raised eyebrows among fans at the Red Bull Arena, especially with Liverpool holding a narrow 1-0 lead.
Before kickoff, Mohamed Salah had logged more minutes than any other Liverpool player, indicating that the head coach was likely managing the 32-year-old’s workload.
Despite the rationale behind the substitution, it was a decision that did not sit well with Salah, who visibly expressed his frustration at being taken off so early in the game.
After the match, Slot addressed the media and explained his reasoning for substituting Salah, emphasising the importance of preserving his fitness for the “tough months ahead” in the season.
“It’s a tough fixture list that we have,” he said.
“I said before the game about Curtis Jones, that he hasn’t played 90 minutes yet, he only played two times 75-80 minutes.
“He’s not used to playing two games so fast in a row.
“We have some injuries now, so I have to take good care of the players who have played a lot.
“Mo is one of them and Sunday is a big game coming up again.
“I need to use as many players as I can use for these tough weeks and months – because it’s not only weeks, there’s tough months coming up – so they are all prepared to play.”
Slot added: “I don’t think we started the game really well in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but after that I liked a lot what I saw.
“Many, many, many times we played through their press, opened up their midfield and went for an attack.
“That led to the first goal, that led to a few chances – more than a few and then in the end it’s a pity that you still need your two centre-backs to play such a big game and your goalkeeper to make two such important saves because a game like this should have been ours after 60, 70 minutes and it wasn’t.
“That’s why the last 20 were still difficult for us.”
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Arne Slot explains decision to bench Curtis Jones vs. RB Leipzig
