Arne Slot to hold crunch talks with Mo Salah over Liverpool future

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is set to hold a “showdown” meeting with club talisman Mohammed Salah, who has been a subject of intense rift for his outspoken words regarding limited playing time at the club.

Salah, who has not started any of Liverpool’s last four games and was an unused substitute against Leeds last weekend, claimed in a “say it all” interview that he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club and said his relationship with Slot had become non-existent.

Talks with Salah are scheduled on Friday, with “the outcome of which will determine” if he will feature against Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday before leaving for AFCON.

The manager initially decided to drop him from the travelling squad, which won 1-0 at Inter Milan on Tuesday in the Champions League.

On the same day, Salah posted a photograph on Instagram of himself training alone at the training ground gym.

When asked on Friday whether Salah had played his final game for the club, Slot responded:

“I will have a conversation with Mo this morning. The outcome of that conversation determines how it will look tomorrow.

“What I need is a conversation with him and the next time I speak about Mo should be with him and not in here. There’s not much more to say about it. I will speak to him today and the outcome of that conversation determines how things will look tomorrow.

“You can try it in multiple ways. The next time I speak should be with him. We’ve spoken a lot in the last week. After the Sunderland game, there have been a lot of conversations between his representatives and ours, between him and me.

“And today I will speak with him again.”

When asked about his personal desire for Salah’s future at Anfield, the head coach also clarified the decision-making behind leaving him out of Tuesday’s 1-0 victory at San Siro, which was made jointly between himself and the club.

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot in a press conference

He said: “[Who decides] if he’s in the squad, yes or no? We’ve decided as a club, I was part of that decision not to take Mo to Inter Milan.

“I’m always in conversation [with the Liverpool board], but when it comes to the decision making of the squad or the line-up that is always left to me.

“That’s not to say I don’t talk to Richard [Hughes]. I talk to Richard about many things. But to play a player is entirely up to me.”

Asked specifically if he wanted Salah to stay, Slot replied: “I have no reason not to want him to stay. This club has won a lot of games with him.”