Mohamed Salah has returned to Liverpool’s pre-season training in fantastic condition ahead of Arne Slot’s first season in charge of the club. The Egyptian enjoyed a summer break with no international commitments and reported back to Kirkby just days after the first set of players were back.
Slot will be missing many of his key players for the majority of the Reds’ pre-season training camp due to the successes of their respective nations at the Copa America and European Championship over the summer months, meaning he will only have just over one week to prepare for his first Premier League match against Ipswich Town with his full squad.
Salah and some other first-team regulars, including Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai, are already back to work ahead of a long campaign and the winger is said to have looked incredibly sharp despite turning 32 in June.
Salah in ‘Incredible Shape’ For Pre-Season
The Egyptian topped the charts for the six-minute race
The Reds’ talisman has always been in great shape physically and has never been shy about removing his shirt whenever he scores a vital goal in front of the Anfield faithful, although he may now be in the best condition of his life. Slot has brought new ideas to the training pitch compared to the practices of Jurgen Klopp, which the players will have grown familiar with over the previous years.
A gruelling six-minute race lay ahead of Salah and Wataru Endo upon returning to the training pitch. Conall Murtagh, Liverpool’s first-team fitness coach, let the pair know: “It’s important to show your mentality. Show the lads how it’s done as leaders in the group,” as they set off for the challenging run. He would then label Salah as: “Phenomenal,” when the Egypt international knocked Sepp van den Berg off the top spot on the leaderboard with a stunning time.
The Athletics’ James Pearce has reported Salah returned in ‘incredible shape’ for pre-season and has been the man setting the standards for his younger teammates to follow on the training pitch and in the gym. A huge season awaits as his future looks to be at Anfield, despite speculation Saudi Pro League clubs could have returned to the table to attempt to sign the 32-year-old.
Arne Slot’s Challenging Pre-Season
He is without 11 first-team players for several weeks
Several huge names in the Liverpool first-team squad reached the Euro 2024 and Copa America finals as Luis Diaz and Alexis Mac Allister faced off in the latter and Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez were unused substitutes in England’s defeat against Spain. They will be the final men to return to Kirkby as Slot will have a depleted squad for the training camp in Philidelphia.
Virgil van Dijk, Cody Gakpo, Ryan Gravenberch, Alisson Becker, and Darwin Nunez were all eliminated in the semi-finals of their respective international competitions. This means they will all be back just days before the finalists, in early August.
Slot already has a difficult task on his hands as Klopp’s replacement in the dugout at Anfield. The German spent nine brilliant seasons at the club with fans knowing exactly what to expect from his team. The new boss is an unknown quantity in English football and his appointment marks the start of a new era on Merseyside.