Arne Slot explains Mohamed Salah bench role in Liverpool’s Champions League loss to Galatasaray

Arne Slot revealed his reasoning for starting Mohamed Salah on the bench in Liverpool’s 1-0 defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League on Tuesday night.

The Reds boss stressed the importance of rotation and the value of impact substitutes. “Indeed, Jeremie is not playing as a right full-back, he’s playing on the right wing. We also said that we have many games to play. In a few days there’s another big game coming up,” Slot said.

The manager insisted that using players differently helps spread the workload. “We have to utilise our squad and utilising doesn’t always mean from the start, players can come in as well. In many of our games, players have impacted the game coming off the bench.”

Salah entered in the 62nd minute to replace Cody Gakpo but was unable to change the outcome. “They were talking about the last time Mo [Salah] scored three coming off the bench against Rangers, and I know who the manager of Rangers was back then. That is my current assistant Gio van Bronckhorst, so they’ve spoken about this already.”

Victor Osimhen’s composed penalty in the 15th minute proved decisive as Galatasaray claimed the win.