Liverpool moved a step closer to automatic Champions League qualification with a hard-fought win in Milan, yet events off the pitch continue to distract from a crucial moment in our season.
Salah cryptic post adds new layer to ongoing tension
Mo Salah has now added further intrigue to his situation by posting another cryptic Instagram story, sharing an image of himself sat on a bench looking across an empty field with no text or caption.
The Egypt captain opted not to acknowledge our 1-0 victory away to Inter Milan, nor did he share a message of support for his team-mates following an exceptional Champions League performance.
This mirrors his previous message-free update from the AXA Training Centre gym on the day we played in Italy.
A moment that prompted a firm reaction from Jamie Carragher who said he was “a bit frustrated” that the forward “doesn’t mention Liverpool tonight playing in a game”, comments that came after the 47-year-old had already taken to social media to express his feelings.
Andy Robertson also gave a measured perspective on the wider situation, admitting it was “a tough situation obviously” while reminding everyone that we’re talking about “one of the greatest players to ever play at this club”, something which highlighted both the respect Salah commands and the difficulty of the current standoff.
Salah’s suspension from team activity came after speaking publicly in a manner the club deemed unacceptable, and while he is entitled to frustration over his playing time, the consequences are now unequivocal.
Salah, Slot and what comes next for Liverpool
Arne Slot faced enormous pressure heading into Milan, with all pre-match discussion still dominated by the aftermath of the 3-3 draw at Leeds and the Egyptian’s remarks afterwards.
Instead of fracturing, the squad appeared galvanised.
We ended an 18-game Champions League home run for Inter thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s late penalty, with our latest ever away winning goal in the competition.
We have now avoided defeat in four straight matches without the No.11 starting, winning twice and keeping two clean sheets – in stark contrast to losing six of the previous seven with him involved.
Those numbers do not mean Salah is finished, but they explain why Slot now faces one of the defining selections of his reign.
Another matchday absence before the forward departs for AFCON could accelerate a potential exit, particularly given the noise surrounding how the relationship between the 47-year-old and the Premier League legend currently stands.
The sad reality is that a situation which should unite us is instead edging supporters towards an unnecessary choice between manager and goalscorer.
What happened in Milan showed how strong we can be when everyone pulls in the same direction, and the hope now is that the coming days allow the Dutchman and the club icon to find enough common ground to move us forward again.
You can watch Slot’s post-Inter Milan press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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This poster simply has something against Salah. Perhaps his real name is Joe on disguise?
Not Joe but Jamie. Typo mistake.
The mouthy mouthpiece who thinks he is the voice of Liverpool football club should stop trying to cause trouble. Jamie carragher only cares about himself and his career as a pundit. He is an attention seeker to improve ratings at sky and his many other jobs. He loves the limelight. What’s sad today is you watch a good game of football and you don’t talk about how good the game was it’s all about attention seeking pundits. Go on holiday or get of TV for a while. These greedy pundits who are multi millionaires don’t represent working class supporters. It’s embarrassing that Jamie carragher has so much say on everything Liverpool, after what he did, he was a disgrace. Spitting at a child. He has no shame or conscience .
Why does he have a grudge against Salah, is he jealous.
He is a pundit and what Salah has done looks bad on all associated with the club. It costs us fans a fortune to pay his wages so he should show respect. This should have happened weeks ago. Simple
He is absolutely right salah is like a spoilt kid who can’t get his own way
No, and even if he was, he’s given 8 seasons to Liverpool. His family is happy and settled. He consistently scores goals and this is the first time he hasn’t. He was used to being fed in by Trent, and working with the same players not switching all the time and playing people out of position. Salah is a very proud man and yes he got emotional because it means so much to him. It’s up to Slot to speak to Salah and repair the relationship. We owe him loyalty and respect. He is extremely fit, fitter than other footballers younger than him. He would start to score if he has the right setup.
Well said Laura. If anything we owe him that loyalty
Are you suffering from selective amnesia? It’s not the first time Salah has underperformed. But it’s definitely not the right time to come out and shit on the club because of his massive ego. Salah has the biggest ego in the world because other players helped him become who he is today. Sack of shit is what he is.
What ego are you talking about? Players has to play together to get to where they are bro. Did Messi and Ronaldo make name for themselves with out other players around them. You need to be objective. Why are you guys not shouting on Virgil van Dijk, the commander of Liverpool defence. You guys are becoming to racist. This is because Salah is an Africa. What are expensive players doing?
First of all, Mo Salah is a legend. He did everything for this club. Walk away from being a pundit cause all you do is talk crap. Mo Salah is the king of Liverpool, the messiah. All you do is put him down. Mo will get back to his best and start scoring goals. Jamie Carragher is the problematic guy
Best comment so far. Thank you for speaking the truth. Salah did right. He speaks about how he feels, not about how JC feels. JC is paid to open his mouth and not to kick the ball.
Mate, this spoilt brat got us number 19 and 20. Value and respect our players for their contributions.
The name Mo Salah,will eternally reverberate across Anfield.Jamie never tasted a league Title in the colours of this great institution LFC.FACT!!!!!!!!
Agree
Jamie is always against Salah
I don’t like the way they say Salah played and they lost 6 out of 7 games. What about the first 5 games? Salah played and we won all of them? Using flawed statistics just make them look silly. If they feel Salah is not part of their plan, then just let him go. It’s pointless dragging this drama on and on. Liverpool needs improvement and progress. We desperately need UCL spot end of season as the bare minimum.
Carragher is certainly jealous of Sallah and that why he can’t stop yearning nonsense at every turn.
Remove Jamie Carragher from this saga, Slot and Salah will join hands. The catalyst is Jamie Carragher who seems to have so much power to monopolise Liverpool. He is the one who instigated Salah to be benched, not once, not twice but thrice if not more and did the same to have Gomez recognised to the first eleven and was done following his unprofessional egos.
Yes u are right I think he is jealous of Salah, many so called pudits did not do much as Salah have done on only in Liverpool, but the entire English Football, name one legend win the Premier league arrear but like to criticize those who are on top of the game, it’s shameful and disgrace to football, I think the way they speak of the players should be reviewed in public
Sounds like you’re the mouthy piece
JC will still be here in 2, 5, 10 years supporting LFC.
Where will Mo be?
Need we ask!
Salah and the Me Me Me mind won’t end anytime soon.
Carragher needs to put a lid on it and let the club and player find a way – if it is still possible – to find a middle ground. Arne Slot did throw Sallah under the bus to paper over his inadequacies this term. He recruited extremely poorly, bringing in overpriced and over-rated players and especially in positions we didn’t need reinforcement, and ignored the defence where we have now ended up conceding 10 goals in 3 matches. Record signings Isak and Wirtz have a combined total of 2 goals amongst them all season and Slot is benching Sallah. It’s totally dishonest and unreal to blame a forward player for the goals we’ve shipped this season. Van Dirk has been a shadow of himself, turning his back on goal-bound shots instead of blocking them. Donate is so slow and error-prone now. Yet, it is Sallah that Slow wanted to show off as the culprit. The only player who is pulling his weight his weight this season has remained Shobozlai. Everyone else is shite but it Sallah that is on everyone’s lips. And were it not for a penalty any honest fan knows we didn’t deserve againt Inter, we would not be in the top 8 of the league phase table. Our team is still shite, with or without Sallah, and the coming weeks will prove it. Carragher should just zip his mouth for a change.
You have just addressed the situation in an unbiased way. Gakpo playing badly in the last few matches, Konate one kick away from calamity, Kerkez absolute rubbish, yet Salah is the one being singled out (We all know he’s not been 100% too, but why is he the only one being treated differently?)
Let’s talk about Slot not dropping Gakpo, or him not playing a fit Chiesa, or him starting a rusty Isak ahead of Ekitike, or not reinforcing the centre-half position. Why is he not trying something different like starting Rio and Chiesa?
You have really spoken my mind, and if you have noticed slot has been fielding a weaker defence when Salah is on I don’t know if it was a way of targeting him. Lately I have seen at least a solid defence line why? His fellow country men have been also poor but he kept playing them, konate has been overworked sometimes covering for both van dirk and at the right back hence making errors but we all know how good konate is. Carragher is just jealousy nothing more. Slot has been using the same squad not considering others how does he expect to keep on winning, does he think this is Dutch league? Just look how he sent away “klopp kids” as if they are of no use, and I think some Dutch coaches have problems in managing high profile players
Slot should’ve waited for Salah to leave for AFCON before pointing fingers. What if Salah leaves but the team’s quality of play keeps deteriorating?
Mate, when pundits and most of the self righteous legends start to sing the same tune, Salah becomes the most obvious easy target.
It’s so unfortunate that a club as big as Liverpool would listen to what an underachiever like Jamie Carragher post or vomits. If Carragher had something in the box, he wouldn’t have scored 8 own goals out of 11-12 career goals. It shows how dumb he is upstairs. He did the same the when Mane left. Others like Rooney whose Man United are performing horribly will see issues in other clubs to backlash another players. Jamie Carragher, was he backlashed during his career days? They are doing the same thing in the national team. It’s a shame from a so-called England legend who couldn’t win a modern day European Championship for their country.
No doubt, Salah has been undeniably phenomenal for us but as a professional player he should have known his limits to respect the club, manager,fans and teammates.
Salah is a great player, but he should be diplomatic in addressing his frustration. Have a sit-down with Slot and discuss his concerns. Going against the club or manager is unbecoming of the player/man. He should stop acting childish. There’s been great players that acted accordingly and aired their concerns to the club and management privately. Mo, don’t tarnish your legacy.
It’s tough for us as fans and I think by now Mo is unhappy and surely regrets what said. Slot and the defence is also to be blamed.
Being singled out for team’s collective failure is just too hard for anybody to bear; Mo is not an exception. Why don’t we start from the coach, with all his responsibilty for the whole team, all the matches they’ve played, and of course the ridiculous amount of money that he’s seemed to waste this season.
I don’t think Salah is the only player that has been blamed, but even Slot himself and other players. Yes Salah has not performed to his standards, and well he can be benched. Truth we all wanted Isak. His below standard is.there are not.balls coming, when they do we all know how Isak can bury them. We all know Salah can be selfish but he used to cover it by scoring goals, now selfish and no goals surely Coach will try something. I blame the coach for not telling Salah he can be benched and Salah for entitlement. As for JC I rarely take him serious. We hve seen great players who messed up by interviews. Even Yamal was blasted for speaking truth about Real Madrid. Interviews are trick they can make or break a player ask Rashford.
It is pathetic seeing that even from within, some people are already scheming Salah’s departure: “…accelerate his departure”.
Seriously?!
Both Carra and this author must be happy by now; their agenda is making a wave. Amen?
How men easily get oblivious! 🤌🏽
What does Liverpool really stand for? The same team Coutinho went on strike from to push a move away to Barcelona or the team Suarez almost dumped for Arsenal? Now these are players that their best could only get us as high as 2nd on the Premier League ladder but we still adore them in our hearts. Jump in Salah and Liverpool think they are the juggernaut again.
As far as I’m concerned if I had a kid (with half of Salah’s achievements) and he walked up to an extended family forum to say he felt thrown under the bus, I will quickly admit to my mistakes and apologise to him, then we will have a sit-down and discuss on the subsequent approach which will suit us both, instead of acting like our weak manager, legends and team as a whole. Smh
Carra is misdirecting his anger in the wrong direction. Why isn’t he talking about benching of players who’ve cost the club fortunes due to their poor performance? The club bought players without knowing which positions they will play and how they will link up with each other. The amount of money spent on transfers does not match the performance of the club. Is that a problem of Salah? Carra needs to be objective if he wants to help his club.
Let salahaaaa. Go he wants out. And we save 400k A
WEEK. More than I gets in a LIFETIME
Suarez was same he bit some player to get out
We all know what mo has done for us and thanks for the memories YNWA ITS THE CLUB NOT HIM
I’m a 67year old supporter. He’s 33 and don’t support
Seems like
No one is above mistake.
One thing is to make mistakes and another thing is to recognize that you’ve got it wrong and that’s when there is place for correction.
Truly MO Salah might get it wrong here but the way this PUNDIT is taking the matter is so personal. As if he is even a good player at his time, Flop of all defense, errors upon error!
Slot a whipping boy 4 Liverpool
Liverpool themselves have degraded the club by their actions and conduct towards mo salah a world class player who has devoted his talent and gift to an unthankful club. Time and time he came to the rescue of Liverpool who now
Shamefully castigate and belittle him with cruel
Indifference . He rates alongside Ronaldo Messi
Strikers that only come along just once in a while
Shame on you Liverpool
100% right slot has no clue of what to do to improve the team but blame it on Sallah.he doesn’t blame his duch counterparts Who don’t perform well.
ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME – Mo Salad
I am a 52 year supporter of Liverpool FC. Born and raised in New Zealand to a Man U Dad, he forgave me lol! Salah is done but all good things come to an end, right? As for Carragher, he showed his true colours spitting at a child, good riddance. Him and his mate Neville are a pair of gob-sh1tes that get way too much airtime.
Carragher scored two own goals in one match against Man utd, he’s also one of the players with the most own goals (what a legend)
How do you manage to use so many sentences and words, without any point at all? I want the last 15 minutes of my life back. And leave Mo alone…