Mo Salah was spotted shaking his head in disbelief after Arne Slot hooked the Liverpool winger in the second half.
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The Egyptian was taken off the field of play – to be replaced by Rio Ngumoha – by Arne Slot on the 77th minute.
The Merseysiders were drawing with Nottingham Forest 0-0 at the time of writing.
Mo Salah unimpressed after Liverpool substitution
The Egypt international was spotted laughing and shaking his head on the Liverpool bench after his and Cody Gakpo’s substitutions (in footage taken by DAZN on X).
Whilst it’s entirely possible that the 33-year-old was having a harmless conversation with his fellow Liverpool attacker, Salah’s body language would indicate at least some irritation with his removal.
Salah sorri após ser substituído 😅#DAZNPremier pic.twitter.com/YFAO1P04s2
— DAZN Portugal (@DAZNPortugal) February 22, 2026
Salah, of course, has history when it comes to emotional reactions to his manager’s decision-making.
The former Roma wide man notably sparked a media storm after claiming that his relationship with Arne Slot had disintegrated after having been allegedly thrown under the bus.
READ MORE: What furious Florian Wirtz was spotted doing on Liverpool bench 10 mins into Nottingham Forest clash
Salah had a dire game vs Nottingham Forest
The stats would hardly support what one might presume to be the No.11’s mindset that he deserved to remain on the pitch.
Stats recorded by Sofascore claim that Mo Salah was the second-worst player on the pitch (6.2/10 rating) behind Curtis Jones (5.9/10 rating).
| Mo Salah stats vs Nottingham Forest |
| 77 minutes |
| 1 big chance created |
| 0 shots |
| 0 ground duels won |
* Mo Salah’s stats against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League (Sofascore)
To be completely fair to the modern Liverpool legend, he was hardly alone in having a bit of an iffy game for Arne Slot’s men as the Reds struggled to impose themselves at the City Ground.
And it’s not like we haven’t witnessed the Egypt star previously pop up and provide the crucial winning goal or assist when it mattered in the dying stages of the game. He has history for that too.
But we just can’t blame the manager for making changes at that stage of the game, with Liverpool in desperate need of a spark.
With a somewhat fortunate 1-0 win secured away from home, it’s a decision that was ultimately justified.
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Salah should have been pulled at half time, all he did was give the ball away, could not take anyone on, lethargic running back, his form is so bad time to take the Shekels from Saudi Pro League. Give the young player his chance.
The whole team and tactics was boring. I fell asleep watching the game and got up to know that we snatched a lucky winner again. Happy? Yes, we won. Worried? Yes, we are struggling against forest who is fighting relegation.
if Mo Salah wants to be on the pitch he needs to start playing instead of kicking the ball against players he needs to try and go round them and put a cross into the box Slot did right to take him off he should have been off earlier.
I agree, Forest were the better team and deserved at least the draw. But that performance by LFC was an absolute disgrace. We basically know that Salah is going at the end of the season, personally I’d drop him now, so he doesn’t ruin his legacy. You’d think after his outburst, he’d be up for it, in fact he has got worse. Gakpo, yet another poor performance, the only good thing is he signed a new contract so if Bayern want him, they are going to have to pay. Curtis Jones well; he was an absolute joke. He lost the ball in the majority of duels and always wants more time on the ball. The team seem that they do not believe in slot, and who can blame them with the slow, boring possession-based way we play, being wide open and overrun in midfield and a complete lack of pace. If you add all the touches our back 5 have had this season compared to the rest of the league, I bet we are way ahead which proves our negative football. Combine this with the fact that we sell Diaz, no replacement, going 8 years without a ready-made replacement for Salah, spending months trying to get in a defensive midfielder and then spending 400m and no DM. Selling Quansah and keeping injury prone Gomez. Letting Konate contract run down. Everything about the club is poor at the minute. The big spend we as fans wanted from the club has ruined the club, we have turned a title winning squad to a mediocre team with no strength in. Slot need to go and I would get in Poch as opposed to Alonso.