Gary Lineker says Mohamed Salah will not have appreciated being taken off by Arne Slot in the closing stages of Liverpool’s shock 2-1 defeat to bitter rivals Manchester United.
Liverpool got off to the worst possible start as Bryan Mbeumo struck just 63 seconds into the Premier League contest to silence Anfield, which rose again when Cody Gakpo made it all square in the 78th minute.
But United continued to press forward for a winner and the visitors were rewarded for their endeavor as Harry Maguire thumped a towering header beyond Giorgi Mamardashvili with six minutes remaining of normal time.
With Liverpool desperately seeking an equaliser and staring down the barrel of a fourth straight loss in all competitions, Slot decided to bring off his talisman Salah, who had earlier spurned a huge opportunity with the goal gaping.
Jeremie Frimpong was brought on in Salah’s place – Slot’s fifth and final substitution after Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike, Curtis Jones and Federico Chiesa had already been introduced.
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But the reigning champions, who had struck the woodwork three times through Gakpo, came up short in pursuit of a leveler to lose yet more ground on their title rivals at this early stage of the campaign.
The result leaves the Merseyside giants down in fourth place behind Bournemouth – and four points adrift of leaders Arsenal, who had edged out Fulham a day earlier.
Reflecting on United’s first victory at Anfield since 2016, Lineker told The Rest Is Football podcast: ‘That’s a big win for [Ruben] Amorim.
‘I think that’s his first time he’s had back-to-back Premier League victories which is an extraordinary statistic.
‘Also, we have to say that Manchester United generally have been better against the bigger clubs. I know not generally at Anfield.
‘Under Amorim and even prior to Amorim they became sort of better on the counter-attack.
‘But for a club like Manchester United, you can’t ultimately be that because you’re going to play against teams with a low block and that’s where they have struggled.’
On Slot’s bold decision to remove Salah in the 85th minute, the ex-England, Tottenham and Barcelona striker added: ‘It was interesting, almost a statement from Arne Slot, that he brought Mo Salah off.
‘Trailing 2-1 when you need a goal. We know what Mo’s like, he can pop up.
‘I know he missed a chance and he was very quiet in the game, but it was an interesting decision.
‘It nearly paid off immediately because Frimpong went down, crossed the ball and Gakpo should have scored.
‘But I just thought, “Hmm… Mo won’t like that”, you know Mo.’
Lineker believes ‘things aren’t going’ for Salah at this early stage of the season, with the Egyptian failing to score in his last five appearances for the Reds.
‘The interesting thing, speaking as a striker in my day, is that when things are not going for you… the ball dropped right between his feet [for the chance],’ Lineker continued.
‘He didn’t know whether to try and open himself up, hit it with the inside of his foot, or hit it with the outside of his foot.
‘When things are going for you, when you’re in form, that would have dropped perfectly, three or four inches to the left, and he’d have just opened himself up and bent it into the top corner.
‘It’s funny how those things happen.’
Lineker’s colleague on The Rest Is Football, Micah Richards, had ‘no problem’ with Slot deciding to bring off his star forward given ‘no player is bigger than the team’.
‘Yeah, but at the end of the day, the manager has got to do what is right for the team,’ the former Manchester City and England defender chimed in.
‘No player is bigger than the team and Mo has been a team player..
‘At the moment, he’s not the Mo that we’ve seen in previous years. Normally, he would have popped up with a goal.
‘That chance that he hit with the outside of his foot, he normally just bends that into the far corner.
‘I have no problem with the manager taking off Mo.’
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