Judgement day coming for Arne Slot’s handpicked Mo Salah replacement

Judgement day is nearly here for Arne Slot's handpicked Mo Salah replacement. What will the Liverpool boss decide?

Arne Slot shocked everyone earlier this season when he decided to drop Mo Salah. The Egyptian, who essentially carried Liverpool to the Premier League title in the last campaign, was suddenly out of the team.

Did it work? That’s debatable. Liverpool had endured their worst form since the 1950s before Salah was dropped but his absence didn’t exactly bring better performances.

The Reds drew with two newly-promoted teams and scraped past a truly terrible West Ham United team. It wasn’t exactly perfection.

At the same time, Slot wasn’t able to replace Salah with the player he wanted in there. That’s instead come in the last month as the Egyptian was at the Africa Cup of Nations.

But he’s returning and that means judgement day is coming. What will Slot do?

Jeremie Frimpong vs Mo Salah

Jeremie Frimpong is the player Slot wanted on the right. We've seen that lately as he's consistently started his compatriot there in Salah's absence.

Frimpong's injury, however, had prevented that pre-AFCON. Now he's been able to have his hand-picked replacement in that role and in truth, it's brought good performances.

Frimpong feels like a bit of a natural, while adding extra width. He's carried the ball well, created chances, bagged an assist - all in all, he's covered Salah's absence very well.

But what now? Does Salah persist with Frimpong there or does he bring Salah back into the fold? It's a gigantic decision and one the head coach can't really afford to get wrong, such is the pressure on him.

Now, Conor Bradley's injury may answer it all for him. Frimpong may be needed at right-back for the rest of the season, ending the experiment there and handing Salah his place back.

At the same time, Slot wasn't picking Salah even when both Frimpong and Bradley were absent. Dominik Szoboszlai was wide-right and Joe Gomez at right-back. That remains an option.

But with AFCON ending on Sunday, Salah will return to the club next week. Slot will need to make his judgement on what to do with his former star player - and it's a decision that's sure to be controversial no matter what he decides.

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