Arne Slot given Mohamed Salah drop verdict after scoreless run and Man Utd defeat

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Liverpool's losing run continued on Sunday - as did Mohamed Salah 's scoreless run. The Egyptian is now without a non-penalty Premier League goal since the opening night of the season.

Most damning, and a sign of his current standing, was that Arne Slot hauled him off with five minutes remaining and the Reds looking for an equaliser.

Salah's struggles come following a year when he was as prolific as ever, setting numerous records in front of goal, all of which ended with him being offered a new two-year deal. His age was dismissed as a concern given the numbers he was producing and a new contract was penned.

Six months on though and already questions are being asked over whether Liverpool missed the warning signs. Ex-Red Jamie Carragher claimed "Salah shouldn't be a guaranteed starter every week" and should be benched for the upcoming away games.

Liverpool's next two matches are both on the road - first at Frankfurt in the Champions League and then at Brentford. Arne Slot needs to get his misfiring attack purring and, with plenty of options and combinations available to him, will Salah now be the man sacrificed?

We asked our Mirror Football writers whether Salah, once an untouchable at Anfield, should be dropped given his personal issues and the team's struggles over recent weeks.

Slot has to drop Salah. There can be no debate. Liverpool’s Egyptian king is out of form, out of touch and looks lost on the pitch. Salah has been quiet in a few games this season and, to be fair, he did try hard against Manchester United but it is just not happening for him - even to the point he is missing big chances.

No one player can ever be bigger than the team. And yet, based on form, Salah has to be taken out of the starting line-up for Frankfurt on Wednesday night. Four straight defeats is Liverpool’s worst run since November 2014 and if they lose five in a row then it will be their worst run since September 1953.

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Liverpool need to get their season back on track - and quickly. Others are not playing well either. But I’m convinced Alexander Isak will come good. Florian Wirtz, too. But Salah is just not at the races. You have to take him out for the sake of the team. Let Hugo Ekitike have a go.

This season is going to be the ultimate test for Liverpool - and Salah needs a break to get his confidence back.

If Arne Slot is prepared to drop Florian Wirtz, then he should take the same attitude with Salah. His status at the club and fact he signed a new contract earlier in 2025, should count for nothing. Liverpool are now in a mini crisis - and part of the cause of this has been the form and attitude of Salah.

His work rate isn't good enough, his commitment appears in question and he's lost his mojo when the ball is at his feet. He's supposed to be the talisman who helps Liverpool in their hour of need. But he's started to go AWOL far too often this season. He needs a kick up the backside, and it's not like Slot has no alternative attacking options, is it?

Perhaps a wake up call would help reinvigorate the Egyptian. Because if Liverpool are to defend their Premier League title this season, Slot is going to need him. But sometimes managers have to make big calls like this - it's what they're paid the big bucks for.

The Champions League format is such a joke that if a club wins three of its eight qualifiers, it is almost certain to be in the play-offs for the knockout stages. Liverpool have won one of their opening two games and amongst the remaining six are home fixtures against PSV Eindhoven and Qarabag.

Arne Slot will not worry about making significant changes to his team for the trip to Eintracht Frankfurt and after eight Premier League starts - and one in Europe - Salah is primed for rotation, regardless of his form.

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But while he might be rotated for a relatively low-key assignment, Salah should not be dropped. A short spell of indifferent form does not mean he is no longer a Premier League force.

He is making some bad choices - the one which meant he hooked a shot wide rather than giving Florian Wirtz a sitter was a particularly bad selection. But it is a pitifully small sample on which to suggest the Footballer of the Year is finished. He should start the next Premier League game - and the one after that. Salah will be back to his best, sooner rather than later.

Well know that quote about insanity - wanting different results but doing the same thing. Well in all three of Liverpool's three Premier League defeats Salah has played from the right with Alexander Isak going through the middle. Something has to change.

And if that means pulling out some big names then so be it. Too much loyalty and stock can be put in what a player has done - not what they are doing.

Isak might be the most expensive player in the team, Salah might be the greatest modern day goalscorer at the club, but neither are delivering right now. It is not as if the player who would come in is an academy kid stepping up, there's big names itching for a chance.

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With all this quality at Slot's disposal there is undoubtedly a formula and a combination that works. He needs to find it and to do so he needs to make some big calls - one should be the axing of Salah.

Liverpool look lost and the form of Salah should be a massive concern. After all, we are talking about one of the Premier League’s best ever players, although he doesn’t look like it now.

This is a serious test for Slot, you simply cannot be in a position where Salah is struggling. Frimpong not starting on Sunday was baffling, he looks the kind of full back that will complement Salah perfectly and needs to be played alongside him.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is clearly the elephant in the room and his exit has exposed a bigger problem that even Slot may not have envisaged. But his number one job needs to be getting the best out of Salah - he has to start every game, but he has to improve.

Or it might be kinder to say the Egyptian superstar should be rotated until Slot finds the correct balance up front in his new squad. And the sight of Salah getting hooked after 85 minutes at Anfield - just after Harry Maguire had scored and Liverpool were seeking an equaliser - clearly showed the Dutchman’s thinking.

Along with Virgil van Dijk, Salah has been one of the best players in the Premier League for the last five years. But on current form, Salah is no longer guaranteed a starting place with Isak and Hugo Ekitike in the squad.

The Swede is still missing game time but the Frenchman has now become a full international and could well be playing alongside Kylian Mbappe at the next World Cup. Record signing Florian Wirtz also has to be fitted in. Are Liverpool too lightweight with both the German and Salah?

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Arsene Wenger always preferred to make a maximum of three signings per window to avoid destabilising the structure of his Arsenal team and Slot needs time - a rare commodity in modern football. Defensive frailties have not helped. The irony is spending an extra £10m to get Marc Guehi would have helped the cohesion of the team.

There is no reason to panic. Liverpool would have won against Manchester United if Allison had been in goal or if one of Cody Gakpo ’s three efforts had gone in off the woodwork. But with a bigger squad, also designed to go all the way in the Champions League, not everyone can play every week. And that includes Mo Salah .

Carragher said Salah shouldn’t be a guaranteed starter every week, and he’s right - simply because no one should. There was more of a case for starting the Egyptian at all times in the first half of last season, when he looked like a goal threat at any given time, but a title-winning squad should - by definition - have the depth to be bigger than any one player. As ever, the issue is less about dropping a player as it is about controlling the narrative around it.

Dropping Salah is only a big deal if Slot allows it to be, and there’s simply not room for the Reds to fit in every single one of their attacking players every week. There’s nothing to suggest Salah is finished, but there’s no harm in showing this is a team that can win games without him - after all, they’ll need to do that when he’s away with his country around the turn of the year, so why not get some practice in?

Is it Frankfurt or bust for Slot? We're not quite there yet, but the midweek trip to Germany is looming large as one of the most important games of the Dutchman's Reds reign now.

Four successive defeats simply can't be tolerated at the Premier League champions, and Slot has to change things for Wednesday night, including dropping Salah.

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It just isn't happening for the Egyptian right now, and there's a real lack of dynamism and threat coming from Liverpool's third highest goalscorer of all-time. It isn't a terminal thing, and he surely will be back resembling the Salah that we all know eventually, but I'd drop him to the bench in Germany just as Slot did for the trip to Galatasaray.

After such an underwhelming start to the campaign, does Slot give himself a brief look at what the future might look like without Salah? Jeremie Frimpong started the last Champions League tie at Galatasaray as the Egyptian sat on the bench and while that experiment yielded few results, might this be an opportunity for Federico Chiesa on Wednesday night?

The prospect of dropping Salah was one that was put to Jamie Carragher on Sunday, with the legendary former centre-back saying: "I think we're at that stage now where Mo Salah shouldn't be a guaranteed starter every week. I do think this is a real conundrum for the manager going forward. I don't think Salah should be like a Virgil van Dijk where it's like 'first name on the teamsheet'. Liverpool have got two away games - in the Champions League at Frankfurt and then they go to Brentford. I don't think Salah should start both of those games."

Simultaneously giving Salah a breather while also making the point that underperformance will lead to a spell out the time might end up proving to be a powerful combination for Slot as he searches for a change in fortunes.

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