Arne Slot named a Premier League starting XI that, for the first time in his Liverpool reign, does not include Mohamed Salah. The move follows two heavy defeats in quick succession and represents a clear tactical shift for Sunday\u2019s trip to West Ham.<\/p>\n
The selected formation was (4-2-3-1): Alisson; Joe Gomez, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konat\u00e9, Milos Kerkez; Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch; Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Cody Gakpo; Alexander Isak.<\/p>\n
Wayne Rooney had joined others calling for Salah to be dropped after last weekend\u2019s 3\u20130 loss to Nottingham Forest. Slot had retained the forward for Wednesday\u2019s 4\u20131 Champions League defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven, but Salah has now been moved to the bench for the West Ham match.<\/p>\n
Salah was the only Liverpool player to start each of Slot\u2019s first 50 Premier League matches. That continuity followed a remarkable 2024\/25 campaign in which the 33-year-old recorded 29 goals and 18 assists, a season described in the draft as one of the most devastating individual campaigns in the competition\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
This term the forward\u2019s output has waned. Salah is averaging a top-flight goal or assist every 179 minutes, compared with one every 72 minutes last term. Opponents have increasingly targeted his right flank, aware that Slot does not burden him with extensive defensive responsibilities. Nottingham Forest twice exploited that vulnerability last weekend, and PSV\u2019s Mauro Junior was able to stroll beyond Salah during the midweek rout.<\/p>\n
Florian Wirtz returns to the lineup in place of Salah. The 22-year-old playmaker is still waiting for his first Premier League goal or assist. The draft notes Wirtz covers a prodigious amount of distance each match but has routinely been bullied off the ball when engaged in physical duels. Slot\u2019s selection for West Ham underlines a willingness to alter his XI amid mounting questions over attacking balance and defensive coverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot drops Salah from Liverpool XI vs West Ham, changing formation after recent heavy defeats today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4782,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1023,355,299],"class_list":["post-4783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-alexis-mac-allister","tag-alisson-becker","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}