Jamie Carragher said he could not believe Arne Slot had left Mohamed Salah out of Liverpool's starting lineup for the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal against Paris Saint-Germain, calling the decision a surprise on live television. Slot instead picked Alexander Isak to start for the first time in nearly four months, a bold move for a striker who only returned last week from a broken leg.
Carragher, speaking on CBS Sports' coverage, said he was “flabbergasted” that Salah was not playing and added that he could not understand why the forward, who scored in Liverpool's 2-0 win over Fulham on Saturday, had been dropped. He noted that Salah had not played in the first leg in Paris and was still Liverpool's best goalscorer, making the decision harder to explain in the here and now.
The selection underlined Slot's willingness to trust fresh options in a match Liverpool had to chase, with the manager telling Amazon Prime before kick-off that the team needed goals and that the two forwards he chose were players they could play into. He also described them as “two target men,” a line that made the omission of Salah, and the presence of Rio Ngumoha on the bench, stand out even more.
The tension around the move is simple: Isak had come off the bench in the away leg in Paris and again in the Premier League win over Fulham, while Salah had just scored and had not been carrying the extra load of the first leg. Carragher said he could not make the logic fit, floating the idea that Slot might be thinking about players who would still be around next season, before dismissing even that as a weak explanation.
For Liverpool, the choice turns a knockout tie into a test of judgment as much as execution. Slot backed power and goals from players returning to fitness. Carragher saw a call that ignored form, rhythm and Salah's record. The result will be judged not by the logic offered before kickoff, but by whether Liverpool find enough goals to keep their Champions League run alive.
