Mohamed Salah's Liverpool Farewell Uncertain as Arne Slot Remains Tight-Lipped

Arne Slot is refusing to say whether Mohamed Salah will be given a Liverpool farewell on Sunday – and he is refusing to be drawn into a public war with his departing star as well.

Salah, who will leave Anfield this summer after nine years, lit the fuse last weekend with a social media post effectively calling for Liverpool to change their style of play. It was widely read as a pointed swipe at Slot’s football, a parting shot from a club great who no longer hides his frustration.

On Sunday, Liverpool face Brentford needing just a point to secure Champions League qualification. It could be Salah’s last appearance at Anfield in red. Slot would not bite.

“I never say anything about team selection,” he said when asked directly if Salah would feature. No smile. No hint. Just a line in the sand.

A fractured relationship laid bare

This is not a new tension. Earlier in the season, Salah was left out of a Champions League trip to Inter Milan after an interview in which he admitted his relationship with Slot had broken down. For a player who has carried Liverpool’s attack for years, that was a seismic moment.

Now, with the end in sight, the questions are sharper. How did Slot feel about Salah’s latest public criticism?

“I don’t think it is that important what I feel about it,” he replied. “What is important is that we qualify for the Champions League on Sunday and I prepare Mo and the whole team in the best possible way for the game.”

The message is clear: the manager will not make this about ego. Qualification first, emotions later.

Slot’s own frustration is rooted in results. “I was very disappointed after our loss against Villa because a win would have given us qualification for the Champions League which we didn’t get. Now there’s one game to go which is a vital one for us as a club.”

Style, identity and a parting shot

Salah’s post spoke to something deeper than one bad week. It touched on identity, on the way Liverpool play, on a sense that the team had drifted from what made it feared.

Slot did not dodge the issue of style. In fact, he went further than many managers would.

“I have to find a way to evolve this team now and definitely in the summer and in the upcoming season to be successful again, and to play a brand of football that I like,” he said. “And if I like it then the fans will like it as well because I haven’t liked a lot of the way we played this season.”

That is a striking admission from a title-winning coach. He knows the football has not always matched the badge.

“But we try to evolve the team in a way that we can compete but definitely also play the brand of football, the style of football the fans, I, and hopefully Mo if he’s somewhere else at that moment in time will like as well.”

One phrase hangs in the air: “if he’s somewhere else.” Slot is planning for a future without Salah, and he is saying it out loud.

Authority questioned, lines defended

Salah’s suggestion that Liverpool need to “recover their identity” inevitably led to questions about Slot’s authority. Had a departing star just undermined his manager in front of the world?

“You are doing a lot of assumptions,” Slot shot back. “First of all you say that he wants to play that style and then say it is not my style.”

He pushed the clock back to calmer days. “I think Mo was really happy with the style we played last year as it lead to us winning the league. Football has changed, football has evolved, but we both want what is best for Liverpool and that is for us to compete for trophies, which we haven’t done this season and which we did last season.”

The shared history still matters. “He and the team – and I was included in that – brought the league title back after five years and we would like to challenge for that again next season and continue to evolve the team. That is my take on it.”

Slot frames the dispute not as a split in ambition, but as a disagreement on the route back to the summit.

Social media storms and the training ground reality

Salah’s post did not sit in isolation. Other Liverpool players liked and commented on it, a modern dressing-room signal that can be read as support, solidarity, or simply habit. In 2024, a thumb tap can become a headline.

Slot, 45, was asked what he made of that digital show of approval.

“Social media came when I was a little bit older, so as people know I’m not really involved,” he said. “I don’t really know what it exactly means if you ‘like’ a post.”

What he does trust is what he sees with his own eyes. “What I know, and that is my world, is to see how they train and I have not seen anything different compared to the rest of the season.”

So the picture is split. Online, noise and narrative. At the training ground, Slot insists, the work goes on as usual.

On Sunday, all of it converges at Anfield: a club chasing Champions League football, a manager trying to reshape a team he says he hasn’t enjoyed watching, and a modern legend who may or may not be given one last chance to walk out in red.

If this is the end for Mohamed Salah at Liverpool, will it close with applause – or with a final, telling absence from the team sheet?