‘Should I have to explain?’ – Arne Slot launches passionate defence of Salah amid Liverpool recall | OneFootball

Mo Salah will be desperate to end a sequence of six matches without a goal when Liverpool take on Brentford tonight.

After being dropped to the bench for the 5-1 midweek thrashing of Eintracht Frankfurt, the 33-year-old – our third-highest goalscorer of all time on 248 goals (lfchistory.net) – comes back into the Reds’ starting XI at the Gtech Community Stadium.

The Egyptian prompted concern among some supporters online when he deleted all references to LFC from his X profile after the game on Wednesday, although contrary to initial reports, he did stay on the pitch to applaud the travelling fans post-match before heading down the tunnel.

Slot: Salah’s goalscoring numbers ‘speak for themselves’

Just under an hour before kick-off against Brentford, Slot was asked about Salah’s importance to Liverpool by TNT Sports‘ Lynsey Hipgrave, and his answer was emphatic.

The Reds’ head coach stated: “Should I have to explain or do his numbers speak for themselves? Mo has been so influential for this club since he’s been here and since I’ve been here.”

(Photo by Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)

Salah has shown he can still come up clutch for Liverpool

Salah has endured an unusually fallow period of late, with his last goal for Liverpool coming in the Champions League win over Atletico Madrid 38 days ago, and he hasn’t been exerting the same level of influence in matches that we’ve become accustomed to seeing from him since 2017.

However, he proved with his stoppage-time penalty winner against Burnley last month that he can still be trusted to come up clutch when the Reds truly need him, and he’ll surely be brimming with motivation tonight after being benched in Frankfurt.

The 33-year-old has scored six times in seven previous appearances against Brentford, with two of those coming at the Gtech Community Stadium (Transfermarkt), so history suggests that there’s a more than plausible chance of adding to that record on his latest visit to west London.

Salah could do with a big performance against the Bees to answer the growing number of critics who’ve been questioning him in recent weeks. If he can produce that and net decisively for Liverpool, it’d go some way towards proving that he remains a crucial player in the champions’ line-up.