‘Steady on, son’ – Liverpool player called out over response to Mo Salah’s social media comments | OneFootball

Jamie Carragher has called out one Liverpool player over his response to Mo Salah’s social media post which contained a thinly-veiled swipe at Arne Slot.

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On Saturday, the Egyptian took to X and Instagram to bemoan the Reds’ results and style of play this season under the beleaguered head coach, with his actions prompting strong condemnation from some pundits.

Several of his teammates seemed to show solidarity with the 33-year-old by liking or commenting on the post, with Curtis Jones replying on Instagram with a clapping emoji.

Carragher calls out Jones over emoji response to Salah

That particular interaction struck a nerve with Carragher, who quipped that the midfielder is part of the reason why Liverpool haven’t played the ‘heavy metal attacking’ football that Salah craves.

The Sky Sports pundit said on the latest episode of Stick to Football: “I think Curtis Jones commented on it, didn’t he? He put like a clapping emoji. I thought that was a bit strange. I thought ‘Jesus, this is why we don’t play heavy metal football because of players a little bit like Curtis Jones in the squad’.

“He takes six touches on the ball before he passes it. I thought, ‘Steady on, son; stay out of that one! Let Salah do whatever he wants to do. He’s leaving in a week’.”

(Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

On Liverpool players liking Salah’s social media posts, Carragher said: “I’m not too bothered really, and maybe they all look up to Salah, you can imagine that. He’s a big figure in the dressing room, a world-class player… I think it was daft for them to do, but I’m not overly fussed by that, to be honest.”

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It’s harsh on Jones to be singled out

It seems peculiar to us that the pundit has no general issue with Salah’s teammates interacting with his comments on social media, but singled out Jones over his use of the clapping emoji and then aimed a football-related criticism at him.

Admittedly the 25-year-old can be culpable of slowing down the play by taking more touches than necessary rather than executing a quick pass, but he certainly can’t be scapegoated for how poorly the team has performed all season.

(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

We think it’s unnecessary from Carragher to single out one player over an issue which affects the entire squad, and in a week which’ll decide Liverpool’s Champions League qualification fate, it’s paramount that fans, players and coaching staff present a united front.

Jones has been vital to the Reds this term for his readiness to adapt to an unfamiliar right-back role through necessity, playing out of position for the good of the team due to injuries in that area of the pitch.

For all the flak that he gets (much of it from LFC supporters), our number 17 is actually among the best midfielders in the Premier League for several underlying metrics, and it’d be fair to say that the squad would be notably weaker without him.

If he plays against Brentford on Sunday, hopefully he can make a decisive contribution towards getting Liverpool over the finish line for Champions League qualification, if it hasn’t been decided beforehand.