Dominik Szoboszlai has said the Liverpool dressing room will have no influence over Mohamed Salah’s next move because only the player and the club can decide how their standoff ends.
Salah missed Liverpool’s valuable Champions League win at Inter on Tuesday having been left out of Arne Slot’s squad in response to his highly critical interview at Leeds. The 33‑year‑old forward could also be absent when Brighton visit Anfield on Saturday. He is due to report for Africa Cup of Nations duty with Egypt on Monday.
Szoboszlai converted the decisive penalty that condemned Inter to a first European defeat at San Siro in more than three years and is among Salah’s closest friends at Liverpool. But the Hungary captain admitted Salah’s teammates would have no input into how the divisive episode is resolved.
“I’m very close with him,” said Szoboszlai, who has taken Salah’s place on the right since the striker was first dropped at West Ham. “It’s nothing to do with the players. It’s him and his own choice with what he is doing with his own life and his own career.”
Asked whether he wanted Salah to stay, the midfielder said: “It’s not our decision as players. I love him as a human being, as a friend of mine. As a player he has done so much for this club it’s going to be the club’s and is decision.”
Liverpool players were reluctant to be drawn into the Salah situation after their victory at San Siro. Curtis Jones insisted the controversy had not affected the atmosphere in the dressing room and that Liverpool’s display against Inter demonstrated the team remained firmly behind Slot. “We always are, we always are,” Jones said.
“He [Slot] is human at the end of the day. If we get beat in games it affects him; it affects us all too the same way it affects fans. He is a positive man, he always makes a change.
“The style of play has changed a bit. He is as hungry as ever, exactly the same with us. He is there with us and we are there with him as well.”
Liverpool are unbeaten in the four games since Slot dropped Salah after the home defeats by Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven that piled pressure on the head coach. Jones believes “the mind-frame of the team has changed” since those damaging results at Anfield and Slot’s tactical changes have also paid off. Liverpool played with a midfield diamond at San Siro with Hugo Ekitiké and Alexander Isak partnered in attack.
Jones said: “I think it works because I am playing. It is a way of getting all the lads in the team. It is obviously hard to keep everybody happy. We are in a situation where it is hard with the games we have lost. It is more about freshening things up, having a bit of a change and that’s what we have done.”
