Asked who Salah was targeting with his comments about him being “thrown under the bus”, Salah replied: “The only person who can answer that question is Mo himself.”
“I can make a guess, but I don’t think that’s the right thing to do in this moment. To be honest, it’s hard to understand who he was talking about in that situation.”
While Salah has expressed his dissatisfaction, Slott offered a contrasting perspective, saying: “No, that’s not how I feel. But he has a right to feel how he feels about things.
“I certainly didn’t feel that way at all until Saturday evening, because I think usually players don’t like the manager that much when I don’t play with him anymore.
“But he was very respectful of my staff and teammates, and he practiced very hard. So when I heard him make that comment after the game, I was surprised in a way.”
“But like I said, this is not the first time or the last time a player won’t play. I don’t know if he got emotional or not, but he said the same things he did.”
“I think our reaction to that and my reaction to that is also clear: He’s not with us tonight.”
Liverpool will also be without other key players such as Codi Gakpo and Federico Chiesa, who were not part of the squad that traveled to Italy on Monday.
Much of the discussion will unfold on the field, but whatever the outcome, the debate over Salah’s exclusion from the squad is bound to reignite.
Asked about the possibility of Salah featuring against Brighton, Slott said: “We are sitting here on the eve of a big game for Inter Milan.”
“From the moment we lost 3-3 against Leeds to the moment I am sitting here there was probably only 36 hours. I think you will also understand that I was trying to prepare the team in the best possible way for tomorrow’s game.”
“The main thing I was thinking about was tomorrow. In the meantime, we have decided what we have just said: we will not take him to this game. After tomorrow we will look at the situation again.”
