Wayne Rooney explains why Liverpool boss Arne Slot must drop Mohamed Salah as thumping Nottingham Forest defeat deepens Reds' woes

Liverpool's dismal run of form continued following the return of domestic action after the international break with a 3-0 thumping by Nottingham Forest. The result means the champions have now lost half of their 12 Premier League matches so far this season and have conceded 20 goals already in the 2025-26 campaign. Slot insisted after the match that "the solution is not that far away" but question marks are now being raised about the Dutchman's future at Anfield following a disastrous start to the defence of their title.

Rooney thinks one way for Liverpool to get back on track would be to drop Salah. The former England captain said on The Wayne Rooney Show: "If I was Slot, I'd try and make a big decision just so it has an impact on the rest of the team. Salah is not helping them defensively. I'm sure if you're one of the players who they've signed and you're on the bench and you've seen him not running - and again he's a club legend and everything he's done for the club - but if you're on the bench, then what message does that send to you? If you see one of your team-mates not running back and he's starting every game?"

Rooney was then asked if that meant Slot should drop Salah and added: "I think so. 100%. He needs to make a decision and get them compact, get them hard to beat and every player running back and working back and then obviously when they start winning games you can bring him back in and hope he is running back more, but I think that'll have an impact on the team for sure."

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Rooney is not the only former player to call on Slot to drop Salah, with former Reds Jamie Carragher and Don Hutchison also claiming it's time to bench the Egyptian. However, Liverpool legend John Barnes is adamant Salah is not the problem. He told Mirror Football: "If you think about the way Liverpool played before, it was for Trent [Alexander-Arnold] or the rest of the team to create for Mo. Whereas now, with players like Florian Wirtz, Ekitike, and Isak, we're playing differently. Once we get that right, we’ll be okay. We’re just going through a few teething issues, and it’s a coincidence that Mo Salah is 33; people are putting two and two together and blaming age.

"The whole team needs to get used to a new way of playing, which isn’t necessarily just going to be about shooting for Mo Salah. Mo will still be dangerous, but he's just not going to get the ball in dangerous situations as much as he did. He's not going to get the ball as quickly. We’ve now got a lot of dribblers now, and so we're not going to play as quickly as we did in the past, and so Salah can’t use his pace to run onto balls and to play one against one.

"I still think he's part of the best 11. Of course, he's not necessarily going to be the main part as he was before, but I still think he's part of his best 11 as it stands. It's just a question of integrating more. We just have to come up with a way that suits everybody, which is obviously different from what they've done over the last five, six years."

Liverpool fans will have to wait and see if Slot does decide to drop Salah after a start to the season which has brought just four Premier League goals for the 33-year-old. However, the Reds boss will have to cope without the Egypt international over the festive period as he will jet out to the Africa Cup of Nations in December with the Pharoahs. Salah is set to potentially miss games against Tottenham, Wolves, Leeds, Fulham, Arsenal and Burnley in the Premier League as well as the third round of the FA Cup. The tournament kicks off on Sunday, December 21, with the final due to take place on January 18.

Liverpool will aim to shrug off their Premier League problems when they return to action on Tuesday against PSV in the Champions League. The visitors head into the match currently top of the Eredivisie table and on an unbeaten run of 11 matches. The two teams did meet last season in the competition, with PSV winning 3-2 against a much-changed Liverpool side in Eindhoven, and a similar result on Tuesday will pile more pressure on Slot and his struggling Reds.