Liverpool manager Arne Slot has said he is “not weak” and denied that the recent incident with Mohamed Salah has undermined his authority at Anfield.
The 33-year-old winger was left out of the squad to face Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday after giving a fiery interview two days earlier, in which he claimed he had been “sacrificed” by Liverpool and that his relationship with Slott had broken down.
Slot said he doesn’t feel that way and that he was “surprised” by Salah’s comments.
Speaking in Milan on Monday evening, Slot added that he has “no idea” whether Salah, who signed a new two-year contract in April, has played his last game for Liverpool, but added that he “strongly believes there’s always a possibility of a comeback for any player.”
He said: “I’m usually calm and polite, but that doesn’t mean I’m weak. If a player makes comments like that about a lot of things, it’s up to me and the club to respond. We responded in the way you saw; we took him out of the game.”
Salah had said he felt someone wanted him to leave Liverpool, and when Slot was asked about it, he replied, “It’s hard for me to know who he’s talking about.”
He added, “That’s not how I feel. He has the right to feel what he feels, but he doesn’t have the right to share that with the media. He was very respectful and trained really hard before the weekend, so his comments were a surprise to me.”
“Yes, we were [in contact] but that doesn’t mean we always agreed on everything, but it’s not the first or last time a player who isn’t playing has said something like that. We’ve struggled as a team this season. I’ve tried to find solutions, that’s my job. We tried many things and we looked very weak against Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven, so I decided to play with an extra midfielder.”
