Egypt manager Hossam Hassan has downplayed suggestions of a crisis around Mohamed Salah at Liverpool and expressed confidence the forward can rediscover his best form with the national team at the Africa Cup of Nations.<\/p>\n
Salah has not started Liverpool’s last five matches across all competitions. He was omitted from the squad entirely for Liverpool’s Champions League win over Inter and began on the bench against Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League. The run of appearances from the bench has prompted speculation over his future and rumours that he could leave Liverpool, though any move would almost certainly have to wait until after AFCON.<\/p>\n
Hassan believes that exposure with Egypt will benefit Salah. “Whenever Salah\u2019s performances dip with his club, he regains his strength with the national team and becomes even better, whether by contributing goals or scoring himself. Then he returns to his club even stronger,” Hassan said. The manager added that he has kept in close contact with the player: “We\u2019ve been in contact with him by phone from the beginning, and I met with him when he joined the national team camp. His focus is entirely on the tournament.” <\/p>\n
On Salah’s mood and preparation, Hassan was emphatic. “Salah\u2019s morale in training is very high, as if he were just starting out with the national team, and I believe he will have a great tournament with his country.”<\/p>\n
Hassan also highlighted the winger’s motivation and standing within Egyptian football. “I feel his motivation is very, very strong. Salah is an icon and will remain so. He is one of the best players in the world, and I support him in everything he does.” He added perspective on the club situation: “I don\u2019t consider what happened to him to be a crisis. These things often happen between players and coaches.”<\/p>\n
Salah arrives at AFCON determined to help Egypt chase a record-extending eighth title in Morocco. Despite a stellar career, he has yet to claim the continental crown, having lost in the finals to Cameroon in 2017 and Senegal in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hossam Hassan: Salah can rediscover form at AFCON despite benching and transfer speculation in camp.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,175],"tags":[1211,1304,1215],"class_list":["post-5286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-liverpool","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-benching","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286","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=5286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}