Arne Slot WARNED not to repeat Mo Salah mistake

Liverpool arrested their recent decline at the weekend - snapping their poor streak of results with a win against West Ham.

The Premier League victory away at the London Stadium emphasised that the Reds’ season is not over yet and should be a huge confidence booster for the players and coaching staff.

Arne Slot made a huge call ahead of kickoff - dropping Mohamed Salah out of the lineup in favour of putting Dominik Szoboszlai on the right of midfield.

This tactical rejig allowed Florian Wirtz to come back into the side at No10 - and provided Szoboszlai another chance to showcase his versatility.

Szoboszlai in, Salah out

Liverpool looked solid down Szoboszlai’s side - in a new-look right-flank partnership in tandem with Joe Gomez.

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There is no doubt the Premier League champions have looked vulnerable down the right with Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong in the right-back position and with Salah ahead of them.

The Egyptian King has been targetted by certain observers over his perceived lack of defensive application. And there is little doubt that Szoboszlai as a more conservative right-sided option worked well against the Hammers.

With high-flying Sunderland now lying in store at Anfield on Wednesday night - Slot has been urged to stick to his guns.

Arne Slot should continue to drop Salah

Instead of adding Salah back into the lineup, the Dutch tactician should stay with Szoboszlai. That’s according to Liverpool legend Steve Nicol - who claims it would be a MISTAKE to restore the four-goal forward to the starting XI.

“You need to start from the back, you need the base to be right, to be solid, to stop giving goals away. He goes back and breaks that shape up, at least they were solid defensively – because of Szoboszlai,” Nicol said to ESPN FC.

Salah soon leaving

“He wasn’t standing wide the way Mo [Salah] does and just stands there waiting for the ball, he’s getting involved, he’s getting back inside, helping his full-back. The whole shape defensively was miles better, they’re not going to get better if they just all of a sudden go back to what they’re doing and teams start streaming through them again.

“You’ve got to look after the base, the solid structure that they had today. Yes, it’s against West Ham, but there was a solid structure, there was no real drama, no running all over the place, no holes. That’s what you’ve got to go from. If he changes it and brings Mo Salah back against Sunderland, to me that’s a big mistake.”

Liverpool will shortly lose Salah for the duration of the Africa Cup of Nations and it might be no bad thing to get used to playing without him for the next month or so - starting with Wednesday night.