Slot lets – Arne Slot has named Mohamed Salah to start Liverpool’s final Premier League match at Anfield against Brentford, despite a week of backlash after Salah’s social media post and Wayne Rooney’s calls to ban the departing forward. Liverpool’s XI also includes Andy
Mohamed Salah walks into his final Liverpool match with the spotlight intact—because Arne Slot has decided he will start.
The decision lands a week after Salah stirred the dressing-room conversation with remarks that Rooney later described as a “grenade. ” calling out his manager after Liverpool’s 4-2 defeat at Aston Villa. The backlash that followed was loud enough that Rooney led public calls for Salah to be banned from the last game.
Slot, under growing pressure from Liverpool fans after a difficult second season, has chosen a different route. He has picked Salah for Liverpool’s match against Brentford at Anfield today. seven days after Salah urged the club to return to Jurgen Klopp’s “heavy metal football” in a dig at Slot on social media. The post was liked by a number of Reds team-mates.
Slot had tried to cool the row earlier this week. insisting both Salah and he “want what’s best for Liverpool.” Now. with the final day of the season underway. the manager has made the emotional call anyway—starting Salah in an afternoon where Liverpool can still move up to fourth place if they win and if Aston Villa are beaten by Manchester City.
Salah, 33, said after the season’s setback that “Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve.” He added: “I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies.”
Rooney’s anger came immediately after Salah’s remarks. On the Wayne Rooney Show. he said: “I find it sad at the end of what he’s done and what he’s achieved at Liverpool. It’s not the point for him to come out and aim another dig at Slot.” Rooney went further. suggesting Salah no longer has the physical tools for the style he was demanding. “He wants to play heavy metal football, so he’s basically saying he wants Jurgen Klopp football. Now I don’t think Mo Salah can cope with that type of football anymore. I think his legs have gone to play at that high tempo and high intensity.”.
For Rooney, the issue wasn’t just the message—it was timing. “If I was Arne Slot. I’d have him nowhere near the stadium in the last game. ” Rooney said. pointing to his own experience of a similar situation with Alex Ferguson. “I had it with Alex Ferguson. I had a disagreement and fall out and at Alex Ferguson’s last game at Old Trafford. he left me out of the squad for that reason.”.
Rooney also framed Salah’s intervention as a problem for the people who will still be working next season. “He’s almost just dropped the grenade and said he doesn’t trust and believe in Arne Slot and almost thrown his team-mates who are going to be there next season and let them have to deal with that as well and put them into an (awkward) position.”.
Slot’s response has been to keep Liverpool moving forward with the players who will shape the emotion of the night.
Andy Robertson, 32, also starts for his own Anfield farewell today. In goal, Alisson Becker—who has been linked with a move to Italy this summer—is in Slot’s XI.
Liverpool XI: Alisson; Jones, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Mac Allister, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai; Salah, Gakpo, Ngumoha.
Mohamed Salah Arne Slot Liverpool Brentford Anfield Andy Robertson Alisson Becker Wayne Rooney Premier League Aston Villa Manchester City heavy metal football Jurgen Klopp