With Liverpool already in turmoil on the pitch, Mo Salah has provided another complication by essentially pitting himself against Arne Slot.
Salah’s comments about his relationship with Slot breaking down have taken the story away from Liverpool dropping yet more points, this time drawing 3-3 with Leeds at Elland Road.
This has left supporters in a difficult position as their legendary talisman disputes the coach who took the Reds to the Premier League title just seven months ago.
• READ – Mo Salah bombshell interview: “Somebody doesn’t want me at the club”
Here, Sam Millne (@sam_millne), Patrick Allen (@P_Allen21) and Peter Bolster (@peter_bolster) discuss Salah’s post-Leeds interview and its ramifications.
Do you agree with Salah that he should be guaranteed a starting spot?
PETE: No footballer should ever be guaranteed a starting place, never mind at Liverpool Football Club, but I do understand Mo’s point here.
He referenced Harry Kane in the sense that everyone knew eventually Kane would start scoring again, and what he is basically saying is that the same would have happened with him.
I think Salah has earned the right to have been given more time to rectify his form, especially when those around him have not justified.
PADDY: No. If we’re going off his logic, we would still be wheeling out Kenny and Billy Liddell.
I completely understand his frustration as there are other players in the side who, in my opinion, have been worse than him – see centre-back and left-wing – but kept their place.
However, let’s be fair, it wasn’t as if Salah was having a stellar season prior to being dropped.
SAM: I don’t agree with Salah. Football is a team game and if the coach feels the best course of action is to put him on the bench, he needs to accept that.
However, I understand his grievances that other players who have been worse are still being played week in, week out. It is difficult to sympathise, though, when he has been well below par this season.
Has Salah acted in the best interests of the club?
SAM: Speaking so publicly does nobody any good.
If Salah believes that he is being rested for ulterior reasons other than just winning the next match, as his comment about someone not wanting him to be at the club suggests, then he has a right to be frustrated. Perhaps that would be the only reason for him to come out.
However, I don’t believe that if this interview was purely to force Slot out – and he likely has support from other senior players – then it should have been done in this way.
PETE: No, he hasn’t acted in the best interests of the club, but I don’t buy into the idea that he’s done this solely for personal gain.
I think he’s already decided to leave and this isn’t an attempt to leverage anything out of the club.
This is his goodbye and I think Liverpool fans need to avoid treating this like a black-and-white case because this is a human being who is also grieving.
Grief makes the brain hypersensitive to the situations around you and that matters when judging how he behaved this weekend.
PADDY: He’s acted in the best interest of himself. He rarely ever comes out to speak to the media and whenever he does, it’s usually self-serving comments.
The last thing the club and his teammates needed was for him to come out all guns blazing like that. All he’s done is likely damage an already broken atmosphere further.
Why might Salah’s relationship have broken down with Slot?
PETE: I think the relationship has broken down like many relationships in life because of a lack of communication.
It appears from the outside that Arne Slot’s man-management skills have failed to the extent that Salah doesn’t believe he is part of this football club anymore.
PADDY: It’s almost impossible to say. If I had to guess, Mo’s let his ego get the better of him after the manager has made a decision that, rightly or wrongly, he’s fully entitled to make.
Slot’s got a lot wrong this season, but it’s still his right and literally his job to pick the side he wants to, regardless of what the players feel. How that’s been handled internally, we’ll never know.
Where do we go from here?
SAM: It certainly feels at the moment like there can only be one winner here, Salah or Slot.
Perhaps Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards are using Slot to push Salah out as they would prefer him to move on.
The alternative scenario sees Salah stay and Slot go. My instinct would be to side with the coach as no player is bigger than the club.
However, if this message is coming from more than just Salah and there are other senior players feeling the same way, then time could soon be up for the coach.
PETE: I think the position now is untenable for Mo. This is the end of his Liverpool career.
I just hope he starts next Saturday so the Liverpool fans can give him the goodbye he deserves.
PADDY: I was of the opinion that when they gave Mo the new contract in the summer, I was with a view to selling him next summer.
Now, with the situation we find ourselves in, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if that move happened next month.
If anything, think he’s tried to throw the manager under the bus here and that’s very, very un-Liverpool, likely strengthening the manager’s position in the eyes of Edwards, Hughes etc in the process.
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