Virgil van Dijk insists that Mohamed Salah remains crucial to Arne Slot’s plans at Liverpool, despite the forward finding himself on the substitutes’ bench once again during Wednesday evening’s 1-1 stalemate with Sunderland. The skipper has stressed that he needs his veteran team-mate alongside him within the squad’s leadership structure, following Salah’s second consecutive Premier League match as a substitute – which represents a first during his eight-year Anfield career.
The Egyptian, who was also held in reserve for Sunday’s 2-0 triumph over West Ham, entered the fray at half-time against Sunderland in place of Cody Gakpo. But Salah couldn’t spark the champions to consecutive wins as Nordi Mukiele’s own goal negated Chemsdine Talbi’s opening strike. Van Dijk acknowledges Salah’s disappointment at missing out on a starting berth but insists such feelings are expected from a player of his calibre.
“What has Mo been like? Like he should be: disappointed,” the Dutchman remarked. “But we need him and he will still be important like he has been. He is still a fantastic player and we still have to remember there is a reason why he has been so successful at the club and we have to respect that.
“I need him around as one of the leaders. I’m not worried. He’s disappointed but that’s absolutely normal as if you’re not disappointed when you’re not playing two games in a row then there is an issue as well. But it’s onto the next now.
“That’s always been the case [that no-one is undroppable]. It’s not like you have unlimited credit, everyone has to perform. Mo has been doing that but the manager made that decision in the last two games. We all want the best for the club.
“I am pretty sure Mo will still be a big part of what we are trying to achieve because he is an amazing player and he has shown it consistently. But like I said with Flo (Florian Wirtz), we are all trying to find consistency and he needs us to be in our best shape and we need him and that’s what we are all trying to find.”
Regarding the match outcome, Van Dijk commented: “That’s absolutely normal unfortunately [that it is not clicking]. It takes a bit of time, the pressing, the moments when we come to the final third we want to make that work as soon as possible, it’s what we all want on the pitch and what we train but it doesn’t always work like that.
“When we have training we train on all those things. The positive I felt was that we didn’t concede many chances, were solid defensively and that’s something to build on. Unfortunately we conceded a goal with a shot from I don’t know how far and a massive deflection and that was obviously not great.
“If you look at the result you want to win, especially at home. We didn’t lose but we played a different opponent so you can’t compare both games.
“In terms of build on things you mean winning but you play two different teams; West Ham there was a lot of space between the lines, they play a different system; Sunderland were pressing high at the start and were then in a low block and then it’s still difficult to break down.
“You want to so you feel you are building on the [West Ham] performance but we got a point and that’s the situation we are in right now. We have to take it on board, recover and be ready for a tough one at the weekend again. I am not satisfied with a point but it could be a lot worse.”
Liverpool are set to face Leeds United on Saturday evening, who recently triumphed over Chelsea with a 3-1 victory at Elland Road. Salah has just three matches remaining with Slot’s team before he leaves for national duty with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.