Virgil van Dijk offers his thoughts on Mohamed Salah’s current situation at Liverpool after the Egyptian was once more benched against Sunderland at Anfield
Virgil van Dijk insists Mohamed Salah still has a significant role to play under Arne Slot at Liverpool. It comes after the forward was on the bench again for Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with Sunderland.
And the captain says he needs his long-serving colleague with him as part of the team’s leadership group after Salah was a substitute for successive games for the first time in the Premier League as a Reds player.
The Egyptian, who was kept in reserve for Sunday’s 2-0 win at West Ham United, was introduced at the start of the second half of the draw with the Black Cats for Cody Gakpo but was unable to inspire the champions to back-to-back victories as an own goal from Nordi Mukiele cancelled out Chemsdine Talbi’s opener.
Van Dijk admits Salah was frustrated at not starting the game but says such a response is natural for a player of his quality. “What has Mo been like? Like he should be: disappointed,” the Dutchman said. “But we need him and he will still be important like he has been.
“He is still a fantastic player and we still have to remember there is a reason why he has been so successful at the club and we have to respect that.
“I need him around as one of the leaders. I’m not worried. He’s disappointed but that’s absolutely normal as if you’re not disappointed when you’re not playing two games in a row then there is an issue as well. But it’s onto the next now.
“That’s always been the case (that no-one is undroppable). It’s not like you have unlimited credit, everyone has to perform. Mo has been doing that but the manager made that decision in the last two games. We all want the best for the club.
“I am pretty sure Mo will still be a big part of what we are trying to achieve because he is an amazing player and he has shown it consistently. But like I said with Flo (Florian Wirtz), we are all trying to find consistency and he needs us to be in our best shape and we need him and that’s what we are all trying to find.”
On the result itself, Van Dijk added: “That’s absolutely normal unfortunately (that it is not clicking). It takes a bit of time, the pressing, the moments when we come to the final third we want to make that work as soon as possible, it’s what we all want on the pitch and what we train but it doesn’t always work like that.
“When we have training we train on all those things. The positive I felt was that we didn’t concede many chances, were solid defensively and that’s something to build on. Unfortunately we conceded a goal with a shot from I don’t know how far and a massive deflection and that was obviously not great.
“If you look at the result you want to win, especially at home. We didn’t lose but we played a different opponent so you can’t compare both games.
“In terms of build on things you mean winning but you play two different teams; West Ham there was a lot of space between the lines, they play a different system; Sunderland were pressing high at the start and were then in a low block and then it’s still difficult to break down.
“You want to so you feel you are building on the (West Ham) performance but we got a point and that’s the situation we are in right now. We have to take it on board, recover and be ready for a tough one at the weekend again. I am not satisfied with a point but it could be a lot worse.”
Liverpool return to action on Saturday evening when they are entertained by a Leeds United side who beat Chelsea 3-1 at Elland Road on Wednesday night.
Salah has three games left for Slot’s side before he departs for Egypt duty at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
