Even If You Agree With Salah, He's Shown His Lack Of Self-Awareness With The Attack On Slot

IF YOU’RE GOING to throw a grenade, make sure you’re far enough from the explosion not to be harmed. Has Mohamed Salah learnt this simple fact of life?

The Egyptian took to social media at the weekend to launch his latest assault on Arne Slot, although the Liverpool head coach was not named in the clumsily ghost-written missive that was issued after the embarrassing 4-2 defeat by Aston Villa. It is obvious, however, whom the criticism was directed toward.

Salah’s discontent with Slot has rumbled on since early in the season and burst into the public domain when the striker said he had been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool after the loss to Leeds United in December. The winger has been unhappy for most of the campaign.

The attacks on Slot – which echo the mood of the majority of the fanbase – were turned up a notch with a classic passive aggressive post of Salah in a restaurant with Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez, who were among a number of team-mates and former players who liked the weekend’s post. The impression is that a significant proportion of the dressing room, from last season’s title winners to the summer signings, are on team Salah.

That’s good to see. Because there have been times in the past 10 months when they haven’t looked part of the same side on the pitch, where it matters. Friday night against Villa was one of those occasions.

The lack of self-awareness of some of Liverpool’s squad is mindboggling – Szoboszlai happily posted a photo of him eating a sponsor’s burger in the wake of the defeat at Villa Park. He’s lovin’ it. The fans less so.

But back to Salah. Two football figures who are not associated with Liverpool contacted me with variations of this message. “Has Salah got another club lined up? I wouldn’t want this sort of nonsense at our place. It’s not as if he’s been performing.”

Even if you think Salah is right, these sort of stunts damage his reputation. The 33-year-old has always had a very strong sense of his own value but some of his recent comments have been risible. Earlier in the month, he expressed his fears for the dressing-room culture at Liverpool. “I remember when I came here first, I think nobody was working before training,” he said. “I wanted to work before and after training. Then others also worked before training.” When he leaves, he suggested, that level of commitment might dissipate. James Milner and Jordan Henderson will probably be surprised to find out that Salah invented extra-curricular workouts.

One of the things that is to be admired about Salah is his confidence and self-belief. Lesser mortals would have been cowed by his experience at Chelsea as an underweight and underpowered member of Jose Mourinho’s squad.

Instead, he bounced back to become one of the best players of his era and an all-time top-five Liverpool legend (I think he even nudges ahead of Steven Gerrard).

His global reach and unashamed but not overstated religious beliefs have had a positive social impact. Salah has been brilliant for Liverpool and will leave a fine legacy.

Do not, however, think for one moment that this is all about Liverpool Football Club’s best interests. He is going through a painful break-up. Salah is lashing out.

It’s hard to believe that only a year ago the winger was praising Slot for the role the head coach carved out for him during the title-winning year. Mind you, Salah always reckoned that he did as much for Jurgen Klopp as the German did for him. That attitude contributed to a spiky but productive relationship between the two men. It also showed where the boundaries of self-belief and delusion meet.

Salah, in his quest to blame the head coach, is missing a crucial point. He has not been good enough this season. That is not entirely his fault but even if the team was set up to play to his strengths, it’s unlikely the trajectory of the campaign would have been much different.

Last summer’s recruitment was designed to change the focus of the side and the record-breaking spending on Wirtz and Alexander Isak made that obvious. The feeling among analytics experts is that players in their 30s can drop off a cliff in terms of performance and this is particularly true of attackers who rely on pace. The plan was to ease Salah out when his contract ended but a number of things changed the thinking.

No one at Anfield was expecting Slot to win the title in his first year. During this supposed transition season, retaining Trent Alexander-Arnold was the priority. Salah, and to a lesser extent, Virgil van Dijk, were surplus to requirements. Their wages were earmarked to be recycled towards an Alexander-Arnold pay rise and new signings.

The combination of the Premier League win, a Salah career year and Alexander Arnold’s exit meant the club backed away from those convictions. Giving Salah an extra two years had a significant PR component. After Alexander-Arnold walked away, allowing a goalscoring talisman to leave on a free would have caused uproar.

Actually, it only postponed the uproar. Even early in the season, Salah showed his annoyance, reposting a dubious aggregator account on social media which showed Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Wirtz and Isak, with the words: “Name a bigger upgrade in football history.” Salah amplified this idiocy with his comment: “How about we celebrate the great signings without disrespecting the PL champions?”

Why even engage? The underlying problems of Salah coping with slipping down the pecking order were already established.

None of this is a defence of Slot, whose underperformance and inability to unite the squad throws up very difficult questions. Although the club say the Dutchman’s position is not under threat, it should be. Salah’s behaviour is a symptom of dysfunction. It is insane that the head coach, the sporting director and the chief executive of football are about to go into the final year of their contracts. This is no way to run a club and Liverpool have squandered a position of great strength in the past 12 months.

Yet Salah has done no one any favours, not himself, not Liverpool. He is a great player but no one is bigger than the club. If he is seeking to influence Anfield’s future after his departure, it is a mistake and one that has been noted across the game.

Just because you agree with the Egyptian King, it does not justify his lack of self-awareness. Slot might not be good enough but neither has the winger. Better managers than the Dutchman would have treated Salah the same way and some would have been harsher on him. He might want to think about his experience under Mourinho.

The blast has caused uproar and before too long Salah may find he’s been damaged by some of the shrapnel. He’s too close to the situation at Liverpool to act rationally.