Liverpool boss Arne Slot has been accused of turning Mohamed Salah into a "scapegoat" amid the club's downturn in form. The Egyptian was dropped for the Reds' 2-0 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain last week and failed to appear off the bench as Liverpool fell behind in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
It's expected the winger, who is set to leave Anfield at the end of the season, will get more of a chance in Tuesday's return leg. And his chances were boosted on Saturday after Salah made a scoring return to the line-up in Liverpool's 2-0 win over Fulham.
Following the first-leg loss in Paris, Slot explained he didn't bring Salah on because he was wary of the deficit growing even larger. The decision was poorly received in Egypt, with some local outlets describing it as a form of humiliation.
Native journalist Magdy Salama, of Sada El-Balad and Al Qahera News, told Foot Mercato he was convinced the motive is more malicious. The reporter in question said he believed Salah "deserved better treatment" and respect from Liverpool's coaching staff. Moreover, he suggested his omission at the Parc des Princes was an example of Salah being made "a scapegoat for the team's poor performances."
When fans saw Salah had been dropped for arguably the biggest game of Liverpool's season, it inevitably created a storyline that is was due to under-performance. And with confirmation the player has no future at Anfield beyond this season, such decisions will be all the simpler moving forward.
The same Egyptian journalist highlighted the departures of Luis Diaz and Trent Alexander-Arnold last summer as greater factors in Liverpool's decline. Moreover, the squad's midfield was pinpointed as an area of weakness compared to last term.
The suspicions of scapegoating mirror those comments made by Salah himself when he embarked on a rare rant in December. Following a disappointing 3-3 draw against Leeds, the forward alleged he had been "thrown under the bus" after he was dropped for that game, too.
“Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus," he said at the time. "That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.
Liverpool have reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals where they host Paris Saint-Germain in the second leg on April 14. Fans can watch the game for free with an Amazon Prime subscription or 30-day free trial.
“I got a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am on the bench for three games, so I can’t say they keep the promise. I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden we don’t have any relationship.
"I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club."
Slot will have the final say as to whether Salah has his chance at making more of an impact against PSG on Tuesday. The Reds need to win the second by at least two goals to force extra time as a bare minimum.
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