Mohamed Salah has finally delivered a significant performance this season, but unfortunately for Liverpool and their under-pressure coach Arne Slot, the 33-year-old chose to make the headlines with his words off the pitch rather than his actions on it.
No great player will ever want to accept it, but when they start to make more news with what they say than what they have done, it is a clear indication of their sporting prowess being on the wane and that they can’t handle no longer being the main man.
Salah’s postmatch interview with reporters after being an unused substitute in Liverpool’s 3-3 draw at Leeds United on Saturday was as box office as any of the 250 goals he has scored for the club since arriving from AS Roma in 2017. But it was also self-serving and anything but designed for the good of the team.
By saying he had been “thrown under the bus” by the club, adding that “someone wants me to get all the blame,” Salah adopted the same tactic used by Cristiano Ronaldo when his explosive interview with Piers Morgan in November 2022 made his exit from Manchester United inevitable.
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Ronaldo said he “felt betrayed” by United and spoke of a broken relationship with then-manager Erik ten Hag. Salah might have been reading from the same script when he unleashed his frustrations at Elland Road, and his words might yet lead to the same outcome as Ronaldo’s: a swift move to the Saudi Pro League and a tarnished legacy at the club where he became a legend.
Salah had been named as a substitute for the third successive game by Slot, and the Egypt international made it clear that he has been bruised and hurt by the demotion.
But here’s the thing: Salah’s performances this season have been so far below his best — just five goals in 19 appearances — that Slot had given him more than enough time to emerge from his form slump before taking the bold decision to drop his star player.
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Slot has struggled to find a winning formula this season, and he is fighting to save his job just six months after guiding Liverpool to the Premier League title, but he has already dropped big-money summer signings Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike in an attempt to kick-start his forward line. None of those moves paid off.
So now it is Salah’s turn to drop out, and he doesn’t like it. One quote within his interview at Leeds suggested that he also doesn’t accept it, pointing to his previous performances as money in the bank that has “earned” him protected status in the team.
“I am not fighting for my position every day because I have earned it,” Salah said. “I am not bigger than the club. I am not bigger than anything. But I have earned it.”
Perhaps Salah is alluding to the old Liverpool adage that “form is temporary, but class is permanent.” Yet although it makes a nice sound bite, it doesn’t really ring true.
The best teams demand form and class, and Salah’s form has deserted him — not just this season, but back into the final months of last season — so something had to give eventually. Salah scored four goals in his last 14 games for Liverpool last term, so overall, he has nine goals in his past 33 appearances in all competitions for the club dating back to late February.
However, it is not simply the slowing down of Salah’s goals output that has led to him losing his place in the team. His defensive contribution has never been one of Salah’s biggest qualities, but his goals and the work rate of former teammates Luis Díaz, Darwin Núñez and the late Diogo Jota always compensated for Salah’s often half-hearted attempts at pressing and tracking back.
But Isak and Wirtz have yet to offer anything approaching the defensive contribution of their predecessors, so Salah’s shortcomings in that area have become even more noticeable and damaging to the team. Goals conceded in defeats against Nottingham Forest and Chelsea were directly attributable to his failure to defend properly.
It was a similar story with Ronaldo at United. Once the goals dried up, he became a liability rather than an asset.
Salah is not yet a liability in Slot’s team, but his comments at Leeds have the potential to be as damaging as any failure to track back or work hard enough on the pitch. His words are tantamount to a challenge to the Liverpool board to back him over Slot. But it would be a bold, and surprising, move by the club to side with a high-earning fading force who will be 34 next summer over a manager who delivered a Premier League title last season.
It’s a simple situation; had Salah been anywhere close to his best this season, he wouldn’t have lost his place in the team. But that reality has yet to sink in.
Salah has overplayed his hand. His past achievements have earned him legendary status at Liverpool, but his recent form has actually earned him the right to be treated like everybody else.
The only person throwing Salah under the bus is Salah himself.
