Mohamed Salah has been brought back into the fold by Arne Slot after clear-the-air talks on Friday following a major falling out between the star player and manager
Mohamed Salah’s leadership qualities in the Liverpool dressing room have been talked up by Milos Kerkez ahead of his return to the squad on Saturday. Salah has been recalled to the fold by Arne Slot for the Brighton game after being dropped from the travelling squad for Tuesday’s trip to face Inter Milan.
Salah and Liverpool manager Slot held clear-the-air talks at the training ground on Friday. It came six days after Salah claimed the two no longer had any relationship to speak of and accused his manager of throwing him under the bus by leaving him on the bench in recent weeks.
The 33-year-old has played just 45 minutes of Liverpool’s last four games, with Slot fielding Dominik Szoboszlai on the right to try and tighten up at the back. The Reds responded with an impressive 1-0 win over Inter in midweek and there was speculation that Salah could have played his final game for the club, with a possible transfer to Saudi Arabia coming in January.
However, Salah, who is due to head off to the Africa Cup of Nations next week, will be present at Anfield on Saturday for the Brighton game. And Kerkez made a point of bigging up his team-mate following the difficult period for the squad.
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Asked about Szoboszlai’s leadership in the dressing room by the club website, Kerkez replied: “It’s important. We have a great character in Virgil [van Dijk] as a captain and he helps a lot. Ali (Alisson) is there, Mo is helping a lot, Robbo (Andy Robertson), all the guys that are much more experienced than us.
“They went through everything and it’s really helpful to have them here. Obviously when the results weren’t so great they came and spoke and really motivated us and that we have to do things different here because this is Liverpool.
“Especially him [Szoboszlai], he’s also a very good friend of mine and I’ve known him since I was 17 or 18, so I know how he is. He’s really important. He’s a great captain for us in the national team and a great character there and really important also there.”
Writing in his programme notes for the Brighton game, Slot said of the Inter win: “everyone involved on and off the pitch took responsibility for helping Liverpool show a better face”. That togetherness is clearly on the minds of the players, with Kerkez emphasising it in his interview.
“We have to do it or at least we have to try to give our best – but I know it’ll come good,” he said. “The group is really, really together and we are really close to each other. We really want to turn things around and I want to do it a lot, the guys want it a lot, everyone wants [to]. We have to do [it].”
Kerkez was also asked about the importance of competition for places, given his interchanging with Robertson at left-back. “Especially me, I always like to compete and show the best version of myself,” he said. “I think it’s always important and especially to have competition like Robbo.
“You have to always – if you’re playing good, if you have competition like that – you have to continue to do good. You know if you don’t have competition then maybe it’s possible playing top and you start to drop and then you need someone to pick you back up again. I think it’s really important. It’s Liverpool, so there’s a lot of games and you need only the best players here. That’s what we have.”
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £336 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
