Arne Slot has laughed off claims that Mohamed Salah could be hinting at a potential Liverpool exit.
After scoring a spectacular winning goal in the 2-1 over Brighton on Saturday, the Egyptian forward posted on his Instagram that he would “never forget what scoring at Anfield feels like.”
Salah’s contract expires at the end of the season but Slot isn’t reading too much into speculation as he prepares his players to face Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night.
He said: “I don’t look at the Instagram posts of my players. I only talk to them, which you can’t. That’s the advantage I have!
“Mo is in a very good place at the moment. As long as he has been here at Liverpool, he’s been in a very good place. This season again as well.
“I hope that he will post one after tomorrow, and on Saturday again, and what he says is not important for me. What is important for me is what he says when we have conversations.”
The Liverpool boss confirmed Ibrahima Konate is in contention to face Xabi Alonso’s Bundesliga champions.
The French defender left Anfield with what looked like a serious arm injury, after being taken off at half-time in Saturday’s win over Brighton.
But Slot has alleviated any concerns surrounding Konate’s availability for the Champions League clash.
He said: “Yeah, he’s available to play, and I think also completely recovered. So there is no issue for him not to play because of what he had.
“Then it’s up to me to make the decision if he plays or not, but he’s in a good place.”
Against Leverkusen, Liverpool will need to maintain the excellent standard of performance that has led them to be one of just two sides with three wins from three in the Champions League.
Slot was critical of Liverpool’s first-half performance on Saturday, which saw Brighton lead 1-0 at the break.
For the Reds boss, it is critical that they don’t let their levels drop again, particularly against the ball.
He said: “If you play against strong teams, like Leverkusen, you need to be good in both sides [of the ball.]
“In the first half we weren’t as good with the ball and we were quite poor without the ball against Brighton, which is a team that can play out from the back really good as well.
“So that shows us that we need a performance like the second half, because Leverkusen in my opinion are at least equal to Brighton on the ball.
“So we need a much better performance than the first half, and an equal performance to the second half.”
Pleasure to speak to Arne Slot for @merseysportlive today.
Asked him about the importance of his team’s out of possession approach against a team like Leverkusen, here’s what he said!#LFC #UCL pic.twitter.com/8moySNRVas
— Martin Crawford (@crawford7martin) November 4, 2024
