Salah 'always in my mind to start', says Slot

Arne Slot is wary of the debate surrounding Mohamed Salah but claims the Liverpool star is always in his mind to start matches.

Salah has started on the bench in Liverpool's last two Premier League games.

The 33-year-old, who has scored 250 goals for the club since joining in the summer of 2017, was an unused sub away at West Ham and only came on in the second half at home to Sunderland, having made a slow start to the campaign, scoring five goals.

Salah was integral to Liverpool's league title-winning campaign last season, and Slot insists the forward remains firmly in his plans to start, as he prepares for a trip to Leeds United.

Slot said: "He deserves that because of the player he has been for this club and for his team-mates for six or seven years. It's completely normal.

"If I don't play players I have just brought to the club we are already talking about it so then it is completely normal that people talk about it when he isn't playing.

"Every player is in my mind to start a game of football because we have so many good players. Mo has been such an exceptional player for us. He is always in my mind to either start or come in."

Salah has a great record against Leeds, having scored nine goals in just six Premier League games against them, with only Alan Shearer (20) and Thierry Henry (10) netting more against the Whites.

Florian Wirtz, meanwhile, is still without a goal or an assist to his name in the Premier League this season but he thought he had broken his duck against Sunderland, only for his deflected finish to go down as a Nordi Mukiele own goal.

Slot is content with the confidence and progress shown by the 22-year-old since returning from a minor injury after the international break.

"He has done well," Slot said of Wirtz.

"I wasn't surprised he was involved in the goal that we scored against Sunderland because he was one of the players who kept constantly trying and was creative.

"You can see where his confidence is at if you look at the last two games how many times he wants the ball and how many times his team-mates play him the ball.

"That is something that tells me how much confidence he has at the moment.

"It is also clear he came back with an injury from Germany, so I am already very happy that he is able to play so many minutes in this first two games after he came back."

Liverpool sit in ninth, with just one league win in their last four matches, and Slot admits that his side's first aim is to challenge for a place in the top four before they can set their sights any higher.

He said: "For me, this tells us how good the Premier League is this season, as it already was last season but it gets better and better every single season – for obvious reasons, because everybody has so much money.

"That tells you how close the margins still are.

"It's definitely our first aim to come back to the top four because we are obviously not happy with the position [ninth] we are in at the moment."

Opta's supercomputer hands Liverpool a 37.2% chance of finishing in the top four.