Are Liverpool trying to force out Salah to save money on his giant wages? | OneFootball

Liverpool won without Mo Salah in Milan on Tuesday night so some pressure is off Arne Slot; are the club just trying to get rid of those mammoth wages?

Salah dominates the Mailbox of course but please write about any subject to theeditor@football365.com

No Salah, no problems

While Slobozlai was kicking the penalty goal, Salah was kicking himself… Muthama Gitonga, Nyeri (Mount Kenya) PS. If you show me some love in the comments, I will keep providing you with more brilliant one liners… right guys?

…Some points from Tuesday night.

I rate Inter as one of the top teams in Europe. If they don’t beat Napoli to the title they’ll run it close. Yes they had some injury problems during the first half but they are elite.

Liverpool going away to Milan and winning is bigger than the 1-0 home win versus Real Madrid.

Some strength of coaching character to go again with Konate.

Having a player like Wirtz off the bench is nasty for the other team.

Seems like ‘Doctor champions league’ sometimes. Thomas Frank must feel the same.

Looks like Arne 1 ( won), Mohamed nil.

Having said all that, Inter are in no fear of not going through, more on that later.

It’d be just like Real Madrid to raise their game and beat City, but it could be a goals galore thriller. Surely Arteta’ll pick the 2nd eleven in Belgium.

Finally, I still prefer the groups of 4 format.

I can see the ‘value’ of entertainment in more open games but that veers towards meaningless summer friendlies rather than playing to qualify for the next round. By reducing what’s at stake, do you not take away the key elements of top class competition?

But what we see is how the world is going and has been since 1788 (birth of capitalism). Peter (England for the World ‘series’) Andalucia

VAR from an issue

I liked the F365 article on Liverpool – Inter. A tight game where all talking points are over-ridden by VAR tedium. A laughable penalty unfairly awarded for Liverpool (akin to the laughable penalty awarded to Galatasaray in their win over Liverpool). A legitimate goal ruled out inconsistently because of tedium. Tedium.

Still, despite every possible indicator, including watching European football, and watching Spanish football, and watching highlight packages, showing that you still get ludicrous decisions that are unsupportable everywhere across the continent, we really do have to double down on the men in black in England being the worst it’s ever been and worse than everyone. Just really constructive. And accurate.

It doesn’t at all ring hollow and insincere to lament the accuracy of referring by using pointless and hugely inaccurate statements that the standard is lower than past (it very much isn’t) or lower than Europe (it isn’t) and it’s ruining games (it isn’t).

Maresca out

Hey Liverpool fans, do you fancy swapping one bald manager for another? Will (Chelsea can’t rely on Maresca showing tactical genius once every 20 games)

Salah: The very definition of self-interest

Let’s not keep pretending Salah was only doing ‘what’s best for the club.’ It was a self-important whine that not only distracts from the current challenge Liverpool are facing but is also disrespectful to his team mates.

Sorry MAW, LA Gooner, but Salah is also ‘shitting the bed.’ It’s one thing to allow Salah to stay in the team when not playing well, waiting for him to come good again, but wholly another when he is expecting to continue not pressing or having to track back, putting even more pressure on the defence. Sure, Konate has been woeful and Van Dijk has struggled, but some of that is due to the rest of the team not helping out. And Salah has a lot to do with that. He has become far too predictable, always cuts into his left, is easily dispossessed which often leads to attacks breaking down and allowing counter attacks. Counter attacks that the rest of the team have to deal with while he stays up front.

It’s not all his fault in that Díaz and TAA have moved on. So the attack is less balanced and he doesn’t have those long balls from TAA to run onto.

But it would also be fair to say he has benefited from Klopp, then Slot, giving him license to play that way. So as soon as he is benched it’s all the manager’s fault?

Ask yourself if that 3rd Leeds goal has not gone in, and Liverpool won, would Salah be being ‘honest’ with the world?

In reality Liverpool have been better without Salah these last 3 games, although now have several injuries and led sickness to contend with – and the odd brain fart from Konate. And again, without that brain fart, Liverpool using Slot’s game plan would have won comfortably.

Salah, unfortunately, only ever ‘falls’ when it is in his self-interest. Paul McDevitt

…No MAW LA Gooner, Salah did not uplift the club from Gerrard slipping champions league winning second place also rans. If anyone started that cycle it’s Bobby Firmino.

Salah has been a great player, but no single player is responsible for any period of success. No player can ever earn his place in the next match because of a performance 2, 3 or however many years ago. He has to earn his place every week.

Salah was unequivocally wrong to speak to the press how he did. He has however, probably saved Slot’s P45. The club has to back the manager in this situation.

How you leave a job or a club is just as important as how you performed. This is why there’s not a statue of Ashley Cole or Van Persie at the Emirates despite them being quite good for Arsenal. Without the champions leagues of course.

If you want to see what a real club legend looks like, can I recommend the Dalgleish documentary on Prime. Puts having played football for £100,000,000 in perspective. Alex, South London

Some sympathy for Salah

The Salah situation is ultimately a sad one. Obviously he shouldn’t have said what he said, in the way that he said it, at the time that he said it…but…

Just last season he carried the team to the title with an unprecedented 47 goal contributions – to put it in context the only player in the same league as him in that position (Saka) has accumulated that number since August 2023. The level he has played at consistently is unparalleled – he has applied himself as a model professional in terms of fitness, diet, and dedication to the club. He is literally saying he is desperate to play for this club. He is almost impossible to replace. It’s not to say that he deserves a place in perpetuity but that there has always been an element of taking him for granted.

I think the single biggest factor for him here is the feeling that he is the only player who has been singled out in this way. He is the only member of the squad who has been dropped for successive games, not even brought on as a sub and watched as we failed to beat two promoted clubs. I don’t think he’s been that bad and certainly not the major factor in our underperformance this season. Managed better he could have a big role this season, if not as prominent, and with fewer minutes – but scapegoating him has exploded for all involved.

If he has the impression he’s being hung out to dry while the club is working behind the scenes to get a big fee he’s obviously decided, to put it mildly, that he isn’t going to passively accept his fate.

If he does get moved on and we continue to struggle for the rest of the season – I think the entire situation might be viewed differently with hindsight.

The way he did it was wrong, the ego is a clearly a factor, but I can absolutely understand him feeling scapegoated and singled out for a mess that was not his making. R Harris, NYC

Follow the Salah money

I have a tin foil hat conspiracy theory for the whole Salah Hullaballoo. I think the club wanted him out for money reasons. His contract is enormous, they aren’t getting the ROI in their opinion from their asset, they’ve just spent a metric tonne of money on some players who have flattered to deceive, and the money people are probably panicking. Their performance in the league means there is a very real possibility they don’t make the CL next year, and if that is the case, the contracts for Isak and Wirtz alone, would be anxiety inducing, even with it being amortised across the duration of the contracts.

We have now rumours that the club was trying to sell Salah to Saudi clubs behind his back, they probably had appearance bonuses in Salah’s contract which may have been hit prior to being sold, and as such a quick sale would be beneficial for all parties barring Salah.

It is basically an utter mess, but my rule of thumb with any ‘he said she said’ nonsense is that when all else fails, follow the money, and that will tell you the why. You never walk alone, unless it affects the bottom line. John Matrix AFC

On Arsenal and their favourite blanket

Liverpool won the all time summer transfer window, when we spent our most money on attackers, left the most important business (defenders) unattended to and won the biggest d*ck between us and Newcastle Utd. See where we are now lofty height of 10th.

Arsenal won the best 2nd eleven and the team with the most squad depth, now when the injures hit them like always they now rushing to the blanket of injuries excuses when the points are dropped. It is very tedious and repetitive, and the injures comparison with other teams players in the same position is useless because no one is ready to sympathize with you.

Please just enjoy how competitive you are with all the injuries because other teams also have their own injuries too, whether big or small doesn’t matter. upon all this clusterf*ck season Salah still managed to throw all his toys outside and to rearrange it is like solving a puzzle. Mudashiru LFC Ibadan (hand Arsenal the blanket because they always need it in this bad cold time)

Arsenal are absolutely grand

Good read the other day from Nik the Villa fan. As an Arsenal fan the game had me reaching for my anxiety tablets whilst we were holding out for a good draw against an in form team. I never quite got to them! Seeing that winner go in with the last kick of the game was devastating. There didn’t appear to be any terrible defending and indeed, if Buendia’s shot had failed to go in, it would have been heroic, brave defending. Instead it was actually brave attacking with Villa having seven players in the Arsenal box so late in the game! Well deserved too.

If you look at how gutted the Arsenal players were at the final whistle it just shows how committed they are in maintaining their impressive EPL and European records. I’m sure the Villa ground staff will have cringed as they watched all that turf banging at the end with Raya in particular transforming into a frog! Seriously speaking though, I personally see that as a good sign suggesting they will pick themselves up and move on.

Arsenal are down to the bare minimum regarding first choice centre backs but bearing in mind Arsenal have coped relatively well leading up to the Villa game and then almost getting there away at the in form team in the league. With Saliba due back soon allowing Timber to step into the right back position he has played excellently, I wouldn’t say there is a defensive crisis at Arsenal. However, it’s clear we are missing Gabriel at corners.

On the topic of mixing and matching our defenders and, to a degree, answering part of Kevin Villa’s post, giving my understanding of why White was kept as right back is that Saka and White have established a great understanding on the right. Maybe switching them when Saka came off in order to use White’s height as an advantage for defending crosses might have been wise in hindsight.

So, Arsenal have now played a large amount of their difficult away fixtures and dropped points to teams in form at the time of playing them yet through their own consistency remain top. This belief that Arsenal are running away with things is/was an external view and not one of Arsenal and their proper fans. Chris, Croydon