John Aldridge says Liverpool have an ‘unstoppable’ player who’ll ‘want to prove a point’ to Slot

John Aldridge has singled out one Liverpool player who he believes will ‘want to prove a point’ to Arne Slot in upcoming matches.

Having been away at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) with Egypt over the past month, Mo Salah is back with his club, and he partook in the Reds’ training session earlier today ahead of their Champions League clash against Marseille on Wednesday night.

Prior to leaving for Morocco, the 33-year-old had made headlines for an explosive interview he gave after the 3-3 draw at Leeds in early December, with the winger having lost his starting berth shortly before that dramatic contest at Elland Road.

Aldridge: Salah will ‘want to prove a point’ at Liverpool

In his latest column for the Liverpool Echo, Aldridge voiced his belief that the Egyptian will have an added motivation to hit the ground running upon his return to LFC, having seen his output plummet to just five goals in his 20 games for his so far this season.

The former Reds striker said of Salah: ‘He will want to prove a point after AFCON. Because he couldn’t win it, but also because of what happened in the first half of the season.

‘When Mo Salah wants to prove a point, he’s unstoppable. He will help us. If he puts a shift in in every game, he can open up defences.’

Can Salah carry over AFCON form to a Liverpool shirt?

It seems startling to proclaim that the third-highest scorer in Liverpool’s history – a man who’s netted 250 goals for the Reds – would ‘want to prove a point’, but there’ll be plenty of attention on the 33-year-old to see how he reintegrates after AFCON and after his Elland Road outburst.

He’s returned to Merseyside buoyed by scoring four goals at the tournament in Morocco, even though continental glory eluded him yet again, and the extraordinary standards he’s set in previous years will add to the pressure to carry his Egypt form over to club level.

As Aldridge says, a fully fired-up and motivated Salah is capable of going to town on opposition defences. If our number 11 plays to his best, he’ll quickly reintroduce the attacking spark that Slot’s team have been lacking in recent weeks (aside from the in-form Florian Wirtz).

Unfortunately that hasn’t been the case for most of the season so far, and while some external defamation of the Egyptian has been way over the top, it’s difficult to dispute much of the constructive criticism about his unusually subdued scoring return in the current campaign.

Hopefully the Mo Salah we see in upcoming games will be the one who did so much to propel Liverpool to Premier League glory less than 12 months ago.

You can watch footage of Liverpool’s pre-Marseille training session below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:

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