Mohamed Salah remained in Liverpool this week as Arne Slot’s squad travelled to Milan to play Inter in the Champions League, and appears long odds to return to Saturday’s teamsheet against Brighton with his career at the club in doubt after last week’s explosive press conference.
The Egyptian did not miss in the Elland Road mixed zone, after what had been his third straight game on the bench. While under no obligation to speak he spent seven minutes fluctuating between self-pity and self-aggrandisement, claiming the club had conspired against him in all manner of ways.
‘The club has thrown me under the bus’ and ‘I don’t have to go every day fighting for my position because I earned it’ were particular highlights, while he also declared he now has no relationship with manager Slot. For all he’s achieved at the club, it’s a position from which Daniel Garb can’t see him pulling on the Reds shirt again.
‘I don’t think so. There have been dramas with Salah before and they’ve been solved, but it’s hard to see how that’s the case this time around because Salah’s not playing well, and Slot’s under pressure,’ Garb told Box2Box.
‘I think he’s been incredibly entitled in the way in which he’s spoken. He clearly thinks he’s bigger than the club. He said in his quote, ‘I’m not bigger than the club,’ but every single thing he’s done tell you otherwise.
‘Mohamed Salah is a top three-to-five Liverpool player of all time. He’s the epitome of a Liverpool legend, put the club back on its perch more than any other player and kept them there for a long time. But that doesn’t give you the right to, basically, hold the club to ransom, and that’s what he’s done here.’
Salah is due to head to the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt after the Brighton game, on December 15. It would appear that situation, with forced time apart and potential for tensions to cool, may provide the slightest opportunity for eventual reconciliation.
Not all Liverpool fans are enjoying the work of Slot in what’s proving an immensely difficult second season, compared to what was achieved last year. But even non-Slot backers are finding it hard to agree with Salah; scoring five times in 19 games prior to his benching represents an immense drop off by his standards, and while Slot may not have all the answers at the moment, he’s at least gone searching for them in making change.
At 33 and with over eighteen months left on the two-year extension signed in April, it is in Liverpool’s best interests to retain at least some value in their asset. For Salah, it is also in his long-term interest not to torch the reputation he’s built at the club, which he and his family deserve to enjoy long into the future.
‘He’s basically thrown a flame to a football club that’s really battling at the moment and put the manager under more pressure, and insulted his teammates and ruined the morale of the dressing room. As a senior player who’s been there for that long, he should not be doing that.
‘I’ve been in those Premier League mixed zones, and players very rarely stop. Salah’s been playing in the Premier League for how long? He’s walked through there hundreds of times and maybe stopped two or three times. The only times have been to cause an issue of som sort.
‘He did this in Jürgen Klopp’s last season when he spat the dummy about being on the bench. There were a couple of other moments around contract situations where he’s been vocal against the club. So there is a common denominator there.
‘When everything’s going right, he’s second-to-none. When things are against him, he does act selfishly, and I think he’s done it again here, unfortunately.’