Mo Salah hands Arne Slot NEW issue to solve | OneFootball

Liverpool are well on their way to something special, given their bravado in the transfer market.

High quality players are being brought in to supplement the Premier League title winners in the dressing room. The Reds will once again be a serious force to be reckoned with next season.

Retaining the title is the aim and the club's activity signifies the sort of intent that we haven't seen before. This summer will be the first transfer window where we will have spent over £200m.

But with change's in the team come the possibility for the side to be disjointed compared to the compact unit that Liverpool were running with last season. A weakness has already been identified.

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Liverpool ALREADY have a problem to solve for next season

In addition to Ryan Gravenberch missing the opening game of the season due to a red card he received in the last game of the 2024/25 campaign, Liverpool have another issue to address.

Mohamed Salah will be going to the African Cup Of Nations (AfCON) this year, which takes place between December 21, 2025 and January 18, 2026, which is mid-way through the Premier League.

The competition happens once every two years and Liverpool fans will be well accustomed to the stress of seeing the Egyptian play for his country, hoping he doesn't get injured during the games.

But alongside that, his absence creates a significant headache for the Reds to solve. Salah's constant availability makes him one of our most reliable players, and as such, he plays in almost every game he can. Liverpool's reliance on him, however, becomes a real problem in these seasons.

The last time we had to deal with Salah's absence was the 2023/24 campaign, when the tournament was based predominantly in January, and he suffered a slight injury which set back his return.

In that period, Liverpool made it through to a Carabao Cup final after beating Fulham over two legs, they beat Arsenal and Norwich to progress through the third and fourth round of the FA Cup, and only three points were dropped from 12 available in the Premier League. The team scrambled hard.

This time around, Liverpool will have to come up with other solutions to their problem. The guy they'll be missing is literally the current golden boot and playmaker winner, and the player of the season.

During the group stage of this year's edition of the tournament, he will miss Tottenham (A), Wolves (H) and Leeds United (H), although progress to the final would mean he would also miss Fulham (A), Arsenal (A) and Burnley (H) before he could return to Merseyside and be re-embedded into the team.

Nonetheless, Liverpool will have been aware of this likelihood for some time, it's the specific fixtures he'll be missing that make up the real update here, although finding a way to succeed without Salah is going to be a real test for Arne Slot throughout this upcoming campaign. Let's see how it unfolds.