Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah has joined Egypt for AFCON 2025, but is rumored to be moving to the Saudi Professional League.
Published December 19, 2025
Arne Slott says Liverpool have “moved on” from the turmoil caused by Mohamed Salah’s explosive exit and are showing signs of developing into the team he wants them to be.
The Reds begin what could be up to a month away without Salah, who is representing Egypt at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), on Saturday when they face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
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After nine losses in 12 games, Slott remained unbeaten in five games, during which time Salah did not start a single game.
“Actions speak louder than words. We have made progress,” Slott told reporters on Friday, referring to his decision to substitute Salah in last week’s 2-0 win over Brighton.
Salah said after the 3-3 draw with Leeds United (he was on the bench for the third game in a row) that he had been thrown under the bus because of Liverpool’s woes this season. He was left out of the squad heading to Inter Milan for the Reds’ next game. Subsequently, interest was expressed from Saudi Arabia in bringing Salah to the Saudi Pro League.
“Now he’s at AFCON playing a big game for himself and his country,” Slott continued. “All his attention is over there and he shouldn’t be distracted by me saying anything because after the Leeds interview we moved on and he played against Brighton.”
Slott’s second season in England has been a difficult one, but Liverpool are seventh in the Premier League and a win against struggling Spurs will move them into the top four.
The English champions revamped their squad in the summer transfer window, spending around 450 million pounds ($602 million) to sign Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Jeremy Frimpong and Milos Kerkes.
With the exception of the impressive Ekitike, all the new players have struggled, and Slott admitted he was too optimistic about how long it would take his new team to perform consistently.
“I think we’re getting closer and closer to the team I want. It’s had its ups and downs,” the Dutchman said.
“But to me, it makes perfect sense because all the changes we made over the summer were intentional because we thought they were necessary.
“To be completely honest, I probably didn’t expect it to take as long as it did, but looking back now I think I was too positive, because when you come into a new group where not everyone is completely ready to play every game for 90 minutes at this intensity, you have to adapt.
“Sometimes he can play, sometimes he can’t play. So it’s probably going to take a little bit of time and we were very unlucky.”
Joe Gomez and Kodi Gakpo will miss the trip to Tottenham due to injury, but Slott hopes Dominik Szoboszlai will be fit to start. Frimpong returns for the first time in two months.
