Liverpool: Arne Slot hits back at Chelsea star's Mohamed Salah claim after last-gasp defeat

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·17 de outubro de 2025

Liverpool: Arne Slot hits back at Chelsea star's Mohamed Salah claim after last-gasp defeat

Reds boss defends misfiring superstar over his role in Estevao’s dramatic stoppage-time winner at Stamford Bridge

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Liverpool boss Arne Slot has responded to claims that Chelsea targeted Mohamed Salah during their win at Stamford Bridge.

Blues left-back Marc Cucurella created Estevao’s dramatic late winner in the recent Premier League clash between the clubs by helping move the ball up the left flank and then darting into space in the penalty box before finding his new team-mate at the back post.

After the match, Cucurella revealed that Chelsea had worked specifically on exploiting the space on that wing left by Salah’s tendency to stay further forward while his team is defending.

“We try to attack [that area] always because we know Salah is always ready to counter-attack, so we practise and the manager always tells us the space is maybe there," Cucurella told Sky Sports.

He continued: "I think they play one style of game where Salah is always ready to attack, so we prepare for that. If we do a good process, maybe we will have a lot of space in there. Today it works, and we won the game in this way.

"We saw it was the last minute. I think we created good chances but I thought we were going to score. I tried to give my last effort, and it ends up being a good ball.”

Asked about Cucurella’s comments in his latest pre-match press conference on Friday, Slot spoke out in defence of his star attacker and the “balance” that is necessary between wingers and full-backs.

“I heard the comments from Cucurella, I saw how they scored the 2-1, but I could also show you five or six moments where Mo [Salah] could have made the difference for us,” the Dutch manager said.

Against Chelsea two weeks ago, an unusually wasteful Salah (L) suffered his latest blank

Getty Images

“If that would have happened, we would have had the conversation like last season where he made the difference for us so many times. If that doesn’t happen, then you get probably comments like this. It’s always the balance between wingers and full-backs.”

Slot added: “I want our full-backs to attack as well, so we have to find the right balance in that, but I said at the start that we are conceding too many crosses compared to last season; this is something I’m aware of, and we have to do better.”

Another Liverpool player currently struggling to hit the heights they achieved last term is Alexis Mac Allister.

A key figure in last season’s title win, the Argentine midfielder picked up an injury towards the end of the 2024/25 campaign and subsequently missed most of pre-season.

With increased competition for midfield places following the arrival of Florian Wirtz and the form of Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai, plus some recurring injury issues, it has been a bit of a stop-start season so far for a player who received a Ballon d’Or nomination for his efforts not so long ago.

Mac Allister will also be returning to Merseyside later than initially expected due to his national team involvement this week, leaving his manager with a dilemma.

Arne Slot believes Alexis Mac Allister will be back to his best soon

Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Regardless of whether he starts against Manchester United this weekend, though, Slot appears confident that his player will rediscover his form soon.

"Unfortunately [Mac Allister] went out immediately after we won the league and we were expecting him to be back from the start of pre-season, which he wasn't,” Slot said.

"That led to the fact he wasn't able to play three times in a row, so he went in, out, in, out, 60 minutes, 45 minutes.

“That's never an ideal scenario for a player. But like all the others, he's a player that has experienced so many things in his career already that he will be back at the level he wants and the level I want from him."