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virgil van dijk He has revealed mohammed salah He wants the winger to stay liverpool But he admitted he was not sure he would do it.
salah return to liverpool team As a substitute in Saturday’s 2–0 win over Brighton after the manager Arne Slott And after an interview with the Egyptian made several allegations the club hierarchy decided not to take him to Italy for the Champions League win over Inter Milan.
Slott brought them back after talks on Friday but Salah had his future in doubt As he claimed he was thrown under the bus and made a scapegoat.
Saudi Pro-League clubs are believed to be interested in the 33-year-old, who has not started in any of Liverpool’s last five matches, but Van Dijk is keen to keep him at Anfield and has told Salah what he thinks.
“Of course I told him I want him to stay,” the Liverpool captain said. “Of course I talk to him. I talk to him about everything.”
Salah will now depart for the African Cup of Nations and Van Dijk has vowed to stay in touch with him.
“He is one of the leaders,” he said. “I would love to have him with us because he is one of the leaders. But obviously the fact is that he is going to AFCON. I wish him all the best. We will be in touch over the next days and weeks, we will always be in touch.”
Van Dijk said Salah has impressed in training this week as well as during his appearance against Brighton, when he got the assist for Hugo Ekitike’s second goal.
“Mo reacted absolutely fine,” he said. “He was good against Brighton. He had good performances on Sunday and Monday when we were training. He didn’t travel but trained together on Friday and he was absolutely fine too. It all depends on the reaction of the team but in my eyes and from what I see and talk to people, everyone handled it absolutely well.
“I think we have shown this week that we are absolutely united and we are moving forward as one. Mo goes to the Africa Cup of Nations. We hope he will be successful there and all hope he will come back and be important for us for the rest of the season. But on the other side of it, we all know football and don’t know what will happen. I hope he is one of my leaders, a very important player you saw with another assist. He is still important for the football club but There are other parties to this situation.”
Van Dijk also praised manager Arne Slot for the way he has responded. “I think he handled the situation very well,” said his fellow Dutchman. “Calm in his own way. It’s a very difficult situation. There’s a lot of noise and pressure from the outside world, obviously and rightfully so because we’re not at or near the level of last season, but we’re human and everyone reacts differently. But seeing it personally and the conversations we have on a daily basis, I think he’s handled it very well.”