Arne Slot explains benching Mohamed Salah vs PSG

Arne Slot says Liverpool’s late collapse against Paris Saint-Germain left no room to unleash Mohamed Salah in their 2–0 Champions League quarter-final first-leg defeat.

With PSG dominant for long spells, the Liverpool head coach felt the priority in the closing stages was simply to hold the scoreline.

“I think the last part of the game was about surviving for us than they was ever a chance we could score,” Slot admitted when asked why Salah stayed on the bench.

He underlined that using Salah purely as an extra defender in his own area would have been a waste of the forward’s strengths. “But I think this was a 20–25 minutes where we were only defending and Mo [Salah] has so much qualities but him defending for 20–25 mins in his own box, it’s better to save his energy for the upcoming games,” Slot explained.

Liverpool now face a huge task in the second leg at Anfield, needing a two-goal swing to stay alive in Europe while also managing Salah’s minutes carefully for a decisive stretch of the season.