Arne Slot explains decision to drop Mohamed Salah for Liverpool against West Ham

Mohamed Salah started on the bench for Sunday’s Premier League game between West Ham and Liverpool (Credits: EPA)

Arne Slot made arguably one of the boldest decisions of his Liverpool tenure to date by dropping Mohamed Salah for Sunday’s Premier League game against West Ham .

The under-fire Reds; manager came out fighting in his press conference on Thursday which followed the humiliating 4-1 defeat in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven at Anfied.

Overall the the reigning champions of England have lost nine of their last 12 matches in all competitions and look a shadow of the team that romped to the title last term.

Having spent close to £500million on reinforcements in the summer, Slot was expected to preside over another campaign of domestic dominance but the reality has played out differently.

Salah’s form in particular has nosedived over the course of a dramatic slump but Slot maintains there was nothing untoward in dropping the Egypt international from his starting line-up.

He told Sky Sports: ‘We have more players on the bench than only Mo but I can understand you ask a question about that.

‘We have played four games in 10 days I have many good players as you know so for today I chose a different line-up.

‘Sometimes Alex has been on the bench and sometimes Florian. So it’s always about who is on the bench which I can understand but it’s also about the players that start and that’s the XI I chose today.’