How Arne Slot fits Mohamed Salah into his long-term Liverpool plans

After one of the more demoralising weeks of his eight years at Anfield, the good news for Mohamed Salah is that Arne Slot has not found his successor. The man who displaced Salah from his usual berth on Liverpool’s right flank at West Ham was a short-term solution, not the face of a new formula.

That may be what Dominik Szoboszlai wanted to hear, too, after he was pressed into service in his fourth different role of the season on Sunday. Salah, Slot admitted, was unhappy at being omitted. But a return to the team now would only be temporary, with the Africa Cup of Nations starting soon.

If Szoboszlai could be a Salah stand-in – for different reasons – then, Slot said: “I don’t see Dominik as a right-winger for the long-term future in this club. Dominik is a midfielder who could help us out as a full-back or as a winger if needed. I don’t expect to be in February and March and every single game Dominik is playing there.

“He’s more of a midfielder than a winger, but the good thing about him is he can help me and us out in several positions if I need him in that position.” Sunday’s decision owed something to Szoboszlai’s work rate. Salah’s reluctance to track back has not escaped unnoticed and some opponents have capitalised. “Dominik, as we all know, runs for two and that was helpful in that game,” Slot rationalised.

As he has realised, benching a player of the profile of Salah, or Alexander Isak, or Florian Wirtz, brings a certain level of scrutiny, and not only on the manager. The cameras tend to be trained on Salah anyway, but it is often to capture goals or goal celebrations. On Sunday, they found him on the padded seats at the London Stadium, next to Andy Robertson.

“It is not a nice thing for a Liverpool fan and not for me, a player that has been so important for us – you want to see him on the pitch,” added Slot. “I prefer to see Mo on the pitch, scoring his goals and doing something special, rather than the camera being on him when he isn’t in the game.”

Soon, Salah will not be in the Liverpool games. The likelihood is that he will be available for four more – Sunderland, Leeds, Inter Milan and Brighton – before a few weeks of enforced absence. “He has been so important for us, for so many years, and he will be important for us in the coming days – because it is days as he goes to the African Cup [of Nations],” said Slot.

Szoboszlai could be an emergency winger again during Afcon. The more immediate question is whether he is before then. The diplomat in Slot stressed Salah’s significance. The manager who dropped him for a must-win match must determine how many of those four he starts. Salah has scored only seven goals in his last 29 outings for Liverpool, five in 18 this season, but has long been defined by a determination to play every game.

Being omitted did not please him. “That is a fair assumption and a normal reaction from a player that is good enough to play for us, and I say it mildly because he has been so outstanding for this club for so many years and will be for us in the future,” said Slot. “Of course, a player is not happy he isn’t playing. He was not the only one who wasn’t happy he wasn’t starting, I can tell you, and that’s normal.”

His reaction, Slot said, has been excellent, both on Sunday and in training on Monday. The Dutchman professed himself unsurprised. Perhaps he had to say that Salah would be outstanding again for Liverpool in the future; he does, after all, have 18 months left on a lucrative deal. And memories of last season, when Salah equalled the Premier League record with 47 goal involvements, scoring 29 and assisting 18, should be sufficiently fresh to counter suggestions he is finished.

And yet Sunday could have marked a changing of the guard. Florian Wirtz’s best Premier League performance for Liverpool brought Alexander Isak’s first goal in the division for them. Each occurred without Salah. Not that Slot has a new strategy involving Szoboszlai taking over from him. The Hungarian has been both winger and full-back at different points this season but Slot said: “In the long-term future, we should have wingers playing as wingers, midfielders playing as midfielders and defenders playing as defenders.”

Whether that winger is a renascent Salah or a genuine successor such as, say, Antoine Semenyo, remains to be seen. But in the next four matches, the cameras will be picturing Salah, whether he is on the pitch or the bench, scoring or watching, happy or unhappy.