With every box of Kellog’s Cornflakes!
BBC Summary here:
- Mohamed Salah’s availability will be determined on Friday morning after Slot has a “conversation” with the winger.
- “I think the next time I speak about Mo should be with him and not in here,” Slot said. “You can keep on trying but there is not much more to say about it. After the Sunderland game there were a lot of conversations between his representatives and ours, between him and me.”
- The Dutchman also explained that the decision not to include Salah in Tuesday’s Champions League squad was “entirely up to him” but has “no reason” for wanting the Egyptian to leave the club.
- Slot said: “We decided as a club - and I was part of that decision - not to take him to Milan. I am always in contact with them [sporting director Richard Hughes and chief executive Michael Edwards] but when it comes to the decision making of the line-up or the squad, they leave that open to me. That’s not to say I don’t talk to them. Mainly Richard, not Michael. The decision to play a player or have them in the squad is entirely up to me. I have no reasons to not want him to stay. This club has won a lot of games with him.”
- Elsewhere, Federico Chiesa has returned to selection after missing Liverpool’s midweek trip to Inter Milan through illness.
- However, Cody Gakpo and Wataru Endo remain on the sidelines and will be out for “a few weeks”, while Alexander Isak is to be assessed on Friday having picked up a knock at the San Siro.
- Both Isak and Hugo Ekitike led the line for Liverpool on Tuesday and the Reds’ boss thinks fans “will see more” of that. He said: “The more they play together they more they will adapt to each other and the better they will cooperate. I saw promising things from the both of them, it’s only the second time they’ve played together. We will see more of them playing together in the future.”
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last four matches for the first time since September. Slot said: “We have shown we have been a team in the last four games that is difficult to beat and create chances against. The team has worked really hard, put a lot of effort in, been a bit unlucky in the results but showed great resilience - four games in 10 days with not a lot of players available.”
That the new Specials remaster?
Update from Hurzeler: Milner, Mitoma and Watson are back.
Webster, March and Tzimas (out for the season) are still out.
We need to win this game to get back on track.
Hopefully, positive talks between Mo and Arne and everything will be ok and Mo will be included in the team.
Chiesa fit again to sit on the bench.
But alas Sicknote Simon has appeared again…
I wonder when we’ll find out if Mo is in the squad. Surely it won’t wait until an hour before kickoff when lineups are announced, will it?
I know Arne said today that he plans to talk to Mo to make that decision, but there’s a part of me that thinks that he already knows what decision he plans to make - he’s just keeping it close to the vest to surprise Brighton. That the sides have already spoken throughout the week makes that feel even more likely - it doesn’t seem prudent to wait until a day before the match to have that talk and make that call.
If Salah starts against Brighton and I’ll be surprised if he does, he’s going to be under enormous pressure to produce the goods. If he fails and we lose the game, it won’t be good for him or Slot.
Sky are reporting that Salah is included in the squad for tomorrow.
That’s great news/the downfall of the club.
I’m just so confused atm.
I think we can say that it’s good news on the basis of there being less public (negative) drama. Behind closed doors, I am sure there are mixed feelings, but we don’t need the pollution of this public conflict on top of our terrible form.
He’s playing rightback.
That’s good news. I hope he plays and performs well. But the “issues persist” language implies to me that there’s still a chance it’ll be his last match for us.
Jones Gravenberch MacAllister
Kerkez vanDijk Konate Gomez
Alisson
bring Salah on (or throw him under the bus) when we’re two goals down.
…Right back on the bench
If we find ourselves 2-0 it will really be an Uh Oh moment as not only is that the most dangerous lead in football it will mean Mo likely wont come on, and then “there will be fire” from Mo afterwards
They will bring him on with 20mins to go… It allows him a chance to score, and more importantly, allows him so say goodbye to the crowd if need be…
Shit way to say farewell though