Champions League: Arne Slot praises Mohamed Salah return on important night for both

Arne Slot has good memories in Marseille. It was here in 2022 when his Feyenoord side held on to secure a place in the Europa Conference League final.

On the eve of this week’s game in the bowels of the Stade Velodrome, he was asked about those memories. He was also bizarrely and rudely asked about Xabi Alonso’s links to the Liverpool job.

Any noise surrounding the future of the Liverpool boss was quietened by a trademark European away performance from his side, who added Marseille to Eintracht Frankfurt and Inter Milan as the teams they have beaten on their travels this season.

Their unbeaten run of 13 matches (W7 D6) in all competitions may have been uninspiring for the large part but it is the longest ongoing streak of any team from Europe’s big five leagues. In itself, credit must be due for that. Liverpool last lost a game in November.

Crucially for Slot, it was a first win in a game that Mohamed Salah started for Liverpool since November 4, when they beat Real Madrid in the Champions League. It now looks like a line has been firmly drawn after Salah’s interview at Leeds and both player and manager can move on for the betterment of the football club.

The reality is that both need each other. Pre-match, Slot told TNT Sports: “The moments when I didn’t play him, I was trying something different. We have missed goals from all the ball possession. If there’s one player in the history of Liverpool that can score goals, it’s Mo Salah.”

It was a night where Salah did not add to his club record of 46 Champions League goals for Liverpool, even though he really should have when he fired wide in the second half, but the assurance with which Liverpool played in a 4-2-2-2 setup will leave Slot delighted and may well give him food for thought for the coming weeks.

“It says a lot about how big a professional he [Salah] is that he can be away for more than a month with a different team and be so fit to play 90 minutes for us after one day of training,” said Slot. “He was so close to a goal. It would usually be a goal from him, but it didn’t harm us because we scored three.”