Arne Slot isn’t ruling anything out for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool after the Egyptian suggested he doesn’t want to retire until he’s 40.
Salah of course signed a new two-year contract last month which will keep him at Anfield until 2027. By that time, he will be approaching 35, although he isn’t showing any signs of slowing down at the moment.
Having scored 33 goals and added 23 assists, Salah is enjoying one of his best seasons in a red shirt, and he still has one or two records in his sights, with the Premier League’s Golden Boot and Playmaker awards already on the way.
Another goal or assist would see Salah equal Alan Shearer and Andrew Cole’s record for the most goal involvements in a season, while two assists would see him match Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne’s tallies for the same metric.
With more records on the line, Salah was once again named in Liverpool’s line-up against Brighton on Monday, despite Slot resting some of his other big players, including Virgil van Dijk.
“Nothing is impossible, but if I would have left him out, I think I could have expected a knock on my door,” Slot explained to Gary Neville on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football. “So to prevent that from happening, I just put him in the team.”
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Neville then asked Slot about his future plans for Salah, and whether the Egyptian could end up playing as a No.9 after revealing in an interview with the former Manchester United captain that he plans to play on until the age of 40.
“Not too sure, it depends also on how the game develops or evolves, I think that’s the better word to use,” Slot responded.
“I think what has changed in Mo Salah’s game is that he went from a striker that was mainly making deep runs in behind the last line, dribbles and scoring goals, towards doing still that, but also being a playmaker.
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“And the way we use him now, I think fits him at this moment the way the league is best, because as a nine, I think, especially the way we use Mo now, but if we would use him in this system as a nine, he needs to do even more defensively.
“And one of the reasons why he probably scored so many goals is that he still does a lot defensively. But I think if I look at our left winger, he needs to do a little bit more defensively than our right winger. So as a nine, he would even have to defend more.
“So that’s why I think this role suits him at this moment, in this system, with this player, best.”
