Slot’s Salah denial makes one Man Utd star the key to victory over Liverpool

In response to concerns raised over Mohamed Salah’s form and whether he could be dropped on the back of suggestions he’s now costing Liverpool points rather than winning them, Arne Slot gave no indication of a change of tack in his press conference, offer Manchester United – and one player in particular – hope of making hay while the sun shines at Anfield on Sunday.

After Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat to Chelsea, Blues full-back Marc Cucurella revealed Enzo Maresca’s pre-game directive to target Liverpool’s right flank as a point of weakness.

Cucurella said: “We know that Salah is always ready for the counter-attack so we practiced that and the manager said that the space might be there [on the right side of Liverpool].

“We saw that it was the last minute but we kept attacking. I tried to give my last effort and Enzo gave me the ball and I crossed for Estevao.”

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It was a public avowal of an awareness of a chink on the Reds’ armour that we’re guessing most Premier League managers already recognised, but have previously been mindful of looking to exploit to any great extent owing to the dangers Salah posed in the other direction.

Former Liverpool full-back Steve Nicol hit out at Salah for “walking around in a daze” and claimed the forward must be ignoring Slot’s instructions to track opposition full-backs.

“99% of players, when things aren’t going well for them, we understand that it’s fine as long as they work hard,” Nicol told ESPN. “But he seems to be walking around in a daze. Those breaks with Cucurella, Salah is not even thinking about him and why is that?

“It surely cannot be that he doesn’t get it or understand it, and there is certainly no way Arne Slot isn’t telling him to keep an eye on Cucurella as he liked to get forward.

“I’m going to be kind to Mo Salah and we can call it low confidence, but right now his head is scrambled and he is not seeing the clear picture.”

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But in his press conference on Friday, Slot pointed out that threat Salah still provided against Chelsea, and in no way suggested he expects more from the forward defensively, despite admitting that a better “balance” needs to be found.

“I saw Cucurella’s comments on Salah but I show you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference, so that would be a different conversation,” Slot said.

“Always the balance between winger and full-back that is quite… I want ours to attack as well we have to find the right balance. We concede too many crosses, I am aware of that and we have to do better.”

Slot instead said that both Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai “are expected to defend” despite being attack-minded midfielders, putting the responsibility on them to cover for Salah rather than putting the defensive burden on the guy he knows is Liverpool’s game-changer.

There’s nothing quite like a game against United to break Salah out of a funk – he’s got 16 goals and six assists in 17 games against the Red Devils – and two goals to send Egypt to the World Cup while becoming the all-time leading goalscorer in African World Cup qualifying won’t have done his confidence any harm.

But Slot’s apparent refusal to alter the defensive expectations of his star man offers United and Amorim an opportunity to prey on the same weakness which saw Alejandro Garnacho and Cucurella get so much joy at Stamford Bridge last time out.

Amorim could plump for either Matheus Cunha or Mason Mount as his inverted winger on that side, but the key man for the Red Devils could be Patrick Dorgu, who has shown some promise this season as a raiding left wing-back and could get some real joy against whichever right-back Slot and Salah hang out to dry.