The Arsenal legend has his say on the words Mohamed Salah spoke after the 3-3 draw at Leeds United, which led to the Liverpool star being omitted from the squad for the 1-0 win at Inter
While it has been what Jamie Carragher said about Mohamed Salah that has garnered the most headlines, his fellow pundit Thierry Henry has also given his opinion on the Liverpool star’s outburst. It was an outburst that led to the forward being omitted from the squad that travelled to Italy for Tuesday’s Champions League clash at Inter.
Liverpool won 1-0 without their talisman, thanks to a late Dominik Szoboszlai penalty and a fully committed team performance, but the talk before and after the San Siro showdown was dominated by what Salah had to say after he was named as a substitute for the third match running for Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds United.
In extraordinary comments, the 33-year-old said that he was “being thrown under the bus” by the Reds and that his relationship with head coach Arne Slot had completely broken down.
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And, while he trained with the rest of Slot’s squad on Monday, he was not named in the 19-man party that jetted out to Milan later in the afternoon, and it remains to be seen whether Liverpool’s all-time third highest goalscorer will be recalled for Saturday’s Premier League encounter at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Henry, who scored a club record 228 goals in 377 games for Arsenal before going on to star for Barcelona under Pep Guardiola, was asked about Salah on CBS Sports’ Champions League coverage on Tuesday.
Sitting alongside Carragher, who had already made his feelings known on the matter, the World Cup winner with France said: “Look, nobody is talking about what Mo Salah has achieved in the game. We’re talking about a moment in time that I think he got wrong.
“You do not talk about your personal situation openly when your team is struggling. You do it in a dressing room. I’ve done it. I went to the dressing room and smashed everything in. I went to the office of the boss and complained about stuff.
“I went also… let me share that one with you. When I was at Barcelona, I went away with the team. They put me in the stand. Did you hear me talking about it? No. There is a team. You need to protect your team at all costs, all the time.
“Now, freedom of speech, I can understand that you want to speak. I can understand the frustration. I don’t understand the how and the when. That doesn’t make any sense to me. That was wrong.
“And when people talk about relationships, the only relationship a coach wants to have with a player is him to perform. If you’re not performing, then your position is in danger.
“It’s not a due to have a position, especially at a club like Liverpool. It’s not about that. He is, after saying that, an outstanding player.
“That has nothing to do with what he has achieved at Liverpool. But that was wrong.”
Expanding on the incident at Barcelona, Henry continued: “We were playing Villarreal away. I’m on the bus. I’m travelling. I haven’t been playing so much with Barcelona at that particular moment. We were on the treble the year before, but I wasn’t performing.
“So if you’re not performing, you put yourself in a situation where you leave the door open for someone to be in.
“I travelled. We arrived at the stadium. I’m in the stand. Am I going to make a fuss about it? Am I going to make it about myself? Am I going to talk to the press after? I have achieved stuff in the game. But team first.
“If I had to say something – and by the way, I said it – I said it to Pep, what I thought about what was happening. But not publicly. This is when I think he was wrong. And it has nothing to do again with what he has achieved.”
Henry added: “I repeat, I love Mo Salah. I love what he has done in the game. That’s a different topic. There, that’s not how you go about stuff.”
Reds boss Slot was asked about the situation with Salah after the excellent victory over Inter.
He said: “I think tonight it should be all about a team like this tonight, against a team like this who are winning and a stadium like this.
“The focus should be on that tonight. I can fully understand if I go into the press conference on Friday and all the questions are on Mo but I think these players deserve for it to be about them tonight.”
