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Why Is Mohamed Salah Not Playing Tonight for Liverpool vs Crystal Palace in the Carabao Cup?

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Emmanuel Mendez | Last updated Oct 29, 2025 3:48 PM ET

Liverpool's team for the Round four EFL Cup match against Crystal Palace surprised many. The lineup is heavily rotated, and the squad is missing multiple first-team players on the starting XI and on the bench.

One of the big names that is absent is Mohamed Salah. The Liverpool attack consists of Federico Chiesa, Rio Ngumoha, and Kieran Morrison.

The Egyptian forward played in Liverpool's previous match against Brentford over the weekend in the Premier League. The home fans at Anfield will not see Salah play against Crystal Palace tonight.

Liverpool's Mohamed Salah appears dejected following the Premier League match at the Gtech Community Stadium, London. Picture date: Saturday October 25, 2025. (Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)

Liverpool manager Arne Slot was asked about the heavily rotated Liverpool, which includes a lot of young players.

Slot announced that some of the key players absent, including Salah, are not injured, but he wants to avoid injuries for players like him.

Arne Slot on first-team players out vs Crystal Palace

Arne Slot's approach for the match against Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup was to give younger players more opportunities to play in front of thousands of fans at Anfield.

Slot says he wants to avoid injuries to key players like Salah and Alexander Isak.

Slot said, "People who know this club, who follow this club for a few years, know that in this competition, we also use this for our younger players. We want to create a pathway for them to play in front of 60,000 people, in front of our own fans. That's one of the reasons."

The Liverpool manager continued and said, "The other reason is we only have four or five injuries, but if I have to play again the same players... there are multiple reasons why we lost so many games - and with all the reasons, still no excuses to lose so many - but it hasn't been helpful that almost every time we had only two days in between the games we had to play after we had to play away from home."

Liverpool's next match will be against Aston Villa on Saturday in the Premier League at Anfield.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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