‘You never…’ – Don Hutchison draws Ronaldo comparison in issuing Mo Salah advice to Arne Slot
Don Hutchison has urged Arne Slot to ‘never’ do one thing with Mo Salah while both men are at Liverpool.
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The Egyptian has hogged the headlines over the past 48 hours after scoring twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Southampton and then publicly declaring that he’s yet to be offered a new contract by his club, with his comments drawing the ire of Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports.
The 32-year-old’s brace at St Mary’s yesterday took him to 12 goals and 10 assists already this season, with our number 11 already scoring in nine of our 12 Premier League games since August (Transfermarkt).
Hutchison makes Mo Salah plea
Speaking on BBC’s Football Daily podcast, Hutchison implored Slot to never substitute Salah even if he’s having a quiet game, due to his unrivalled ability to conjure a match-winning moment for Liverpool, citing a similar scenario with Cristiano Ronaldo in his second spell at Manchester United.
The 53-year-old said: “If you are Arne Slot and have learned anything from watching Jurgen Klopp’s tapes, you never take him off. There are players at Liverpool that you can take off and rest, but you would never do it with Mo Salah.
“He might get to the point where he might be a little bit like [Cristiano] Ronaldo in his later years. Ronaldo at Manchester United a couple of years ago was probably not closing down. People were talking about [a lack of] intensity in terms of closing down from the front, but he was still scoring goals.
“That’s what you might see from Mo Salah if he stays on. He might not be super important in the 90 minutes, but every single game he will score, maybe score a brace, he will have assists. He is so crucial to this team it is untrue.”
Salah is very rarely substituted, and with good reason
No footballer likes to be substituted, and there have been times at Liverpool where Salah certainly didn’t take kindly to being withdrawn, but ultimately it’s the manager’s prerogative to make whatever changes he wants during a game and when.
That said, we take Hutchison’s point about the Egyptian being consistently able to come up with a clutch moment, even in matches where he’s largely been on the periphery. How many times have you watched the Reds and felt that our number 11 was barely involved before then seeing him score?
Slot has by and large taken the former LFC midfielder’s advice so far – in the 16 matches that the winger has started this season, he’s only been substituted in three, and two of those instances were in the final 20 minutes (Transfermarkt).
The result is that Salah has scored in 11 different games already his term – remarkably, the win over Southampton was the first time in 2024/25 that he’s netted more than once in the same match (Transfermarkt).
It’s an incredible testament to both his ability and his fitness that, even at 32, the Egypt international almost always plays the full 90 minutes for Liverpool. We don’t envisage the head coach calling him ashore too often, certainly not on the form that he’s shown since the summer.
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