If I look at my line-ups Mo is more in than out – Arne Slot addresses Salah talk

By Carl Markham, PA

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is confident Mohamed Salah is fully focused on the biggest week of their season despite the self-made headlines about his contract situation.

After Sunday’s win at Southampton, the Egypt international made a rare stop for reporters and said “We are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay in the club. I’m probably more out than in”.

Those comments took the focus away from the Champions League visit of Real Madrid, followed quickly by Manchester City coming to Anfield at the weekend, and Salah was criticised by former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher for his “selfish” timing.

However, Slot insists there has been no hint of distraction from either his leading scorer, who is out of contract in the summer, or his team-mates.

“The only thing I can say is that if I look at my line-ups Mo is more in than out,” he said.

“I focus a bit more on what else he (Carragher) said – he said he was one of the five best players Liverpool ever had and I completely agree with him, which is not an easy thing as there have been many great players at this club.

“I don’t think it distracts Mo at all, maybe it even brings the best out of him if you look at his performances until now.

“Like I’ve said a few times already, my focus is the next game and another big game is coming up and it just keeps on going.

“I talk to Mo about what I expect from him, like I do with all the other players, and he is in a good place at the moment. I’m not distracted by his comments and I don’t feel his team-mates are.

 

“I haven’t seen that after the United game when he had some comments, I haven’t seen it after a (social media) post you told me about (after Brighton) he carried on scoring.

“Today he is fully focused on the game tomorrow, I think these kinds of things are inside here and the media and all the fans talk about it which is completely normal but if you had been at the AXA today I don’t think any player talked about it – at least not while I was there.

“Players always give each other stick so maybe they did this now but players are also focused on the short term and that is Madrid and that is City.

“I don’t think there is any distraction for him, for the players and definitely not for me because I worked yesterday on preparing the team in the best possible way and there was not one time in my mind that I was thinking about sitting here and talking about Mo.”

Salah’s performances this season do not give the impression of a man looking towards the exit door.

A post shared by Mohamed Salah (@mosalah)

He has scored 12 goals and provided 10 assists already and Slot knows he has a huge part to play in the remainder of the season.

“Definitely we want his numbers to be where they are at the moment because those are the numbers that Mo always had and still has,” he added.

“That is the positive thing. I don’t think that he is distracted at all.”

Defender Andy Robertson confirmed the players were unconcerned by Salah’s comments.

“Honestly, for us as players, it’s nothing we can really get involved in. All I can say is you look at Mo today, look at Mo yesterday, he’s the ultimate professional,” he said.

“In fairness, it goes for all three of them. Mo, Virgil (Van Dijk) and Trent (Alexander-Arnold) are all in similar positions (with contracts expiring in the summer). Every one of them is so focused on the next game and training and preparing properly.

“They’ve been leaders this year, that’s the way they’ve done it. And I think for us within the changing room, I think if they can do that, then we kind of do that. We don’t get distracted by anything else.”

Robertson was asked whether Salah was unhappy about his situation.

“He didn’t look sad to me (in training). Mo comes into training every single day with a smile on his face. He is in the gym working as hard as ever, he is on the training pitch working as hard as ever,” he added.

“In terms of that, he’s one of the happiest people in the training ground, that’s for sure. And I think he’s such a focused individual that he’ll be focused, he’ll be in his house now probably focused on tomorrow night.

“That’s the main thing, that’s what all good players do, that’s what all the best in the world do and Mo certainly falls into that category.”