BREAKING: Liverpool FC team news as Mo Salah decision announced

Mo Salah will start on the bench for Liverpool against Brighton today it has been announced.

Arne Slot has named his side at Anfield, with Milos Kerkez and Florian Wirtz back in the Reds line-up in place of Alexander Isak and Andy Robertson. Salah is expected to make an appearance later in the game in what could yet be his final match for Liverpool.

After the Premier League draw at Leeds, the player said his relationship with the Reds boss had broken down, he had been “thrown under the bus” in response to recent results and suggested Saturday’s game could be his last for the club.

Slot said at his press conference he had “no reasons (for) not wanting him to stay” but intimated there would have to be some form of conciliation from Salah for him to be reintegrated in what would be his last match before heading for the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday.

But he insisted the final decision would be his – having spoken with sporting director Richard Hughes and other members of the club hierarchy – when leaving out the player in midweek.

The Press Association understands Slot’s decision has been taken in what he feels is the best interests of the team.

It will also provide some breathing space in the row as Salah will head for AFCON on Monday, during which a solution to the current situation will continue to be addressed.

“We have spoken a lot in the last week after the Sunderland game. There were a lot of conversations between his representatives and ours, our representatives and him, between him and me,” said Slot at his 9am press conference.

“I think we decided as a club – and I was part of that decision – not to take him to Inter Milan and I am always in contact with them, but when it comes to the decision-making of the line-up or the squad, they always leave it open to me.

“That is not to say I don’t talk to them, mainly Richard not Michael (Edwards, chief executive of football for owners Fenway Sports Group), but I talk to him about so many things. The decision to play a player or have him in the squad – as I have experienced until now and I think this will never change – is entirely up to me.”

In Salah’s absence a depleted team beat Inter Milan 1-0 in a solid away performance which made it two wins and two draws in the last four matches, all with the Egyptian not in the starting line-up.

Liverpool: Alisson, Gomez, Van Dijk, Konate, Kerkez, Wirtz, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Jones, Ekitike, Gravenberch.

Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Isak, Salah, Chiesa, Robertson, Ramsay, Ngumoha, Lucky.