John Aldridge reacts to Mohamed Salah’s explosive comments about Arne Slot and his Liverpool future in the first half of his weekly ECHO column
I was left speechless when I saw Mohamed Salah’s comments after the Leeds game. I don’t know what’s going on. It’s never good though, is it, when a player speaks out like that?
It’s the wrong time to speak out, especially when you look at where we are in the table and what’s happened at the club. I don’t necessarily agree with him speaking out, but you can understand Mo’s frustration. I can understand his feelings at Arne Slot not playing him but I can understand why Arne isn’t playing him too.
We all know that Mo’s having probably his worst season in the red shirt. If you’re not playing well, it doesn’t matter whether you’re Steven Gerrard, Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan or Roger Hunt, you simply don’t play.
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I remember Roger Hunt getting brought off for the first time, Bill Shankly brought him off and he threw his shirt down, which at the time… it was mad in those days. Because he was such an icon.
It’s similar to that, even though Roger didn’t come out to the press. But sometimes you can’t keep a lid on your frustrations. You’re not getting younger.
And the way the game was going, the last minute goal and all the frustrations, you leave yourself open to the public.
Mo has just come out and said what his feelings are. Whether they’re right or wrong, it’s not for me to say.
But as I said, the timing’s not great. Though, to be fair, it might actually be just what the club’s wanting or even needing to kick on. A bit of fire. It sounds a bit daft, but sometimes you get it all out there, clear the air and are able to move forward.
I don’t know whether it’ll have any bearing on the players, but it should because we are in a place where we shouldn’t be.
Mo came out and said what he said. Only he knows why. The club now has to deal with it one way or the other, and deal with it the right way.
We now know he won’t be part of the squad that goes to Inter Milan. I don’t know if that is Arne’s call or if the owners might have had to intervene a little bit.
In our day, the manager would have final say. But when it’s like this and it’s publicly announced… there’s all these agendas in football now. It’s a business.
If I was the manager, the first thing I would have done is have Mo in my office first thing this morning to clear the air. One way or the other.
We’ll have to wait and see what happens next. He goes to AFCON next week and the transfer window opens next month.
It could get worse for Liverpool without him, but it could get better too. You just don’t know what impact this will all have.
I suppose it has taken the pressure off the players a little bit at least, after the weekend and everything that’s happening on the field, because all the attention has been on Mo.
Obviously Mo’s future is up in the air now but I think we’d be okay for forwards even if he did leave. I don’t want him to and I hope it doesn’t come to that.
Arne Slot still needs to find the right blend in attack, don’t get me wrong. That much is obvious from what we’ve seen so far this season.
I don’t think Liverpool will want to sell him, but they still have options. Florian Wirtz can go there. Dominik Szoboszlai has been playing there.
We’ve got Frimpong who can play out there too when back from injury.
But for me, whatever happens with Salah, the attack isn’t the agenda.
The agenda is defending. That’s the most important thing. If we can start keeping clean sheets again, or only conceding one goal a game, then we’ll be alright.
