As if conceding a 96th-minute equaliser away at Leeds United wasn’t a dramatic enough Saturday night for Liverpool, along comes Mohamed Salah. With his latest interview he hasn’t just lit the touchpaper, but poured litres and litres of petrol on it too. Talk about explosive interviews – this one packs a punch like a prime Mike Tyson. And Salah’s message to the higher-ups on Merseyside is pretty clear: ‘I leave or the manager leaves.’
Liverpool had enough to worry about even before Salah spoke to journalists inside Elland Road. They have won two of their last 10 Premier League matches. They look lost on the pitch, devoid of any identity and to win games are simply reliant on the individual quality of their players to produce moments of magic. But now they have another gigantic problem to deal with off the pitch, on top of their mountain of issues on it. Salah’s words leave Liverpool’s management in a situation they could never have imagined just months ago when they were basking in the glory of the club’s 20th league title, spearheaded by the Egyptian himself.
Salah says he’s been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool. The 33-year-old added to journalists: “I’ve done so much for this club down the years and especially last season. Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I got a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am on the bench for three games, so I can’t say they keep the promise.
“I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, but it seems to me that someone doesn’t want me in the club. I don’t accept this situation. After what I have done for the club it really hurts.”
He’s got a point. In April this year, Liverpool handed him a new two-year contract on £400,000 a week. That’s the biggest wage any Liverpool player has ever earned, in their 133-year history. They knew his age and their expert data team would have presumably known what to expect from him on the pitch during the length of that deal.
But now they’re benching him for three straight league games at a time they desperately need a run of wins. Is that Slot and his staff admitting they got it wrong? That they should never have signed off on a new deal for Salah? Maybe. Even if it isn’t, Salah clearly feels like the scapegoat.
It is completely fair for the Egyptian to feel disrespected by the fact he wasn’t even asked to come on against West Ham and Leeds. Has he been at his electric best this season? No. And yet only three players – Bruno Fernandes (40), Jeremy Doku (36) and Jack Grealish (29) – have created more than his 28 chances in the Premier League. His production is down, but he also hasn’t just fallen completely off a cliff.
And Slot’s tactics, and the general tactical mess that this Liverpool team are right now, is as much a factor in the general malaise as Salah’s lack of pressing. He namedropped Jamie Carragher in his interview so clearly feels he’s getting more criticism than he deserves. There are a few players you could point the finger of blame at before you turn to Salah, that’s for sure.
But the Reds have now effectively been given an ultimatum. Slot, or Salah? One now surely has to go. Whether it’s selling Salah in the January window, or sacking Slot in the coming days or weeks. This is an untenable situation and one that suggests there are deepening cracks inside the dressing room. Unlike the fictional town of Hawkins, Liverpool can’t just slap a load of metal plates over them.
It is devastating for Liverpool that it has come to this. This is a club and squad still grieving the tragic loss of Diogo Jota. The situation was managed brilliantly by Slot. But clearly since then, he has lost the faith of Salah. There were murmurs days before this interview that the veteran winger was privately questioning the tactics of the Dutchman. On the evidence of this interview, those rumours have some substance.
So… do the Liverpool hierarchy side with the manager who delivered the club its first league title in front of fans since 1990, or the winger who has become the third-highest goalscorer in Anfield history while delivering season after season of greatness? It is an unenviable situation. Even the Liverpool fanbase will be split, though on the basis of torrid recent performances and results, more will be backing the player than the manager right now.
While externally all the noise around Slot has been of a man under major pressure, the word internally was that Liverpool still have complete faith in the 47-year-old. And that perhaps he hasn’t been given the tools he needs this season, despite a lavish summer of spending. Does that situation change with this explosive Salah interview? One thing is for sure, his relationship with Slot looks FUBAR’d – f****d up beyond all repair. One must leave.