Why dropping Salah could rescue Liverpool's season

So it transpires that Mohamed Salah has something in common with much of the West Ham fanbase.

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT

They all have unhappy memories of the London Stadium. The Egyptian's may stem less from the sense that a soulless bowl is ill-suited to football or some particularly demoralising home defeats than from two low points in a Liverpool career of many a high.

There was the argument with Jurgen Klopp when waiting to come on in May 2024, which highlighted that, mutually beneficial as the alliance of two of the most prominent figures in Liverpool’s success over the last decade had proved, they were not soulmates. There was the next Premier League game he began on the bench, 18 months later, when he remained there, also giving him a chance to savour the London Stadium’s lack of atmosphere.

Liverpool’s 2-0 win at West Ham could mark the beginning of the end for Salah. Or, Arne Slot suggested, squad rotation in a packed fixture list. Or, perhaps more accurately, a bit of both.

That Slot benched Salah when his own future had become the subject of conversation, when Liverpool had lost nine of 12, meant it was not just another game. That it contained Florian Wirtz’s best Premier League performance so far and Alexander Isak’s first topflight goal since his £125m move meant it was laden with symbolism. Out with the old, in with the new?

Yet even before the two record signings had delivered more than before, there was significance to Salah’s demotion. It came three days after Mauro Junior had strolled past Salah with conspicuous ease to set up PSV Eindhoven’s second goal in their 4-1 win at Anfield. Marc Cucurella had said Chelsea targeted attacks on Liverpool’s right because of Salah’s reluctance to track back. At Manchester City, he had left Conor Bradley isolated against the relentless Jeremy Doku.