Not that he will feel he needed it, but the manner of Liverpool’s hard-earned victory at Inter Milan vindicated Arne Slot’s decision to drop Mohamed Salah in the first place.

In each of the five defeats from six league games that preceded Salah being jettisoned from the starting XI , every opponent focused a much higher percentage of their attacks down the Egyptian’s flank. They were safe in the knowledge that with his running and defensive stats falling off a cliff this term, they had an easy avenue to target an increasingly vulnerable back line.

Salah admitted such last season. His defensive responsibilities had been reduced, on the premise that the goals and assists didn’t subside. Taking penalties out of it, six goals in his previous 33 appearances shows the 33-year-old didn’t

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