Has Salah changed?

[Modo]

Had dinner with my cousins who were visiting from Oxford yesterday and of course we end up talking football. My cousin is pretty smart, well traveled and has relatives on his side in Egypt. Oh, and he's a Man U fan.

So, my cousin suddenly goes "you know that Salah is going to leave, right?"
"What tells you that?"
He goes "did you see how he celebrated the goal against Man U?"
"For a guy who used to be humble, to suddenly take off his shirt and show his abs and shaved chest, to me it looks like he's starting to care more about himself than the team".
He adds, "did you also notice that he's a little bit more selfish now?"

I said that I've never seen it from that perspective before, but that he could have a point.
My cousins are muslim as well so they mentioned the Christmas tree thing as well and "Mané's" tantrum.

So, has Salah changed?

 

[MaBigTip]

yes

 

[Squiggles]

I don't really understand what the question is. I do think Salah has become slightly more selfish since his opening season, almost as if he's trying to replicate his 40 goal year. That's understandable to some degree. He's still chasing that high of being compared to Messi and Ronaldo. But is he now some prima dona? No. He remains extremely down to earth in any interview he's done lately. Your mate's just trying to stir the pot because we're brilliant and United have turned into a laughing stock.

 

[Modo]

I don't really understand what the question is. I do think Salah has become slightly more selfish since his opening season, almost as if he's trying to replicate his 40 goal year. That's understandable to some degree. He's still chasing that high of being compared to Messi and Ronaldo. But is he now some prima dona? No. He remains extremely down to earth in any interview he's done lately. Your mate's just trying to stir the pot because we're brilliant and United have turned into a laughing stock.

My cousin, but yeah, could be.

 

[juniormember]

He’s taken his shirt off before, shaved chest and all, and has always been very selfish within 40 metres of goal. Nothing’s changed really.

 

[walesnj]

I think it was done with a sense of relief more than anything, wasn't it the first goal he's scored against them?

 

[Raz]

Christmas tree thing???

 

[Treboeth]

Christmas tree thing???

Cheeky Muslim posts a pic of his family in front of a Christmas tree.
How dare he integrate into our society and celebrate our customs,many twats were offended by it sadly.

 

[keniget]

It’d be interesting to rewatch some of his performances when he first joined.

But fuck that.

He still works really hard (I don’t buy the argument that he’s a bit of a luxury player) but it does feel like he plays more for himself than he used to, yeah.

 

[mom]

Can’t see Klopp just putting up with it. Maybe it’s by instruction or allowed.

 

[doctor_mac]

Cheeky Muslim posts a pic of his family in front of a Christmas tree.
How dare he integrate into our society and celebrate our customs,many twats were offended by it sadly.

No way! Salah got shit for having a Xmas tree? WTF?

 

[Treboeth]

No way! Salah got shit for having a Xmas tree? WTF?

I think a couple of other prominent Muslims had the same abuse, Amir Khan was one that I remember.
Getting abuse for integrating and respecting our customs sums up the thinking of some people.

https://www.metro.co.uk/2019/12/27/...f-trolled-christmas-tree-muslim-11965904/amp/

 

[Farkmaster]

He hasn't changed, your friends are just part of an inevitable blowback against a massively popular figure. I don't imagine your friends look like gi Joe figures, and their resentment is palpable.

His football has changed though. He's been a worse finisher for long enough that we can safely say that it's a return to form, rather than something he'll play through.

But... He is playing through it. He's desperately trying to be the man again, but he isn't. He's "just"a fantastic attacker on a fantastic team. He could do more by trying to do less , but I don't think it comes from some place of massive ego. He had an impulse to exceed himself before, and we saw an unreal level of performance.

Couple that with him not having brilliant technique on the dribble, but instead using good technique, pace and power, and defenders have definitely caught up to his tendencies.

He would do well to work on his really inconsistent touches and passes in buildup play. Im not expecting him to change how he is in threatening areas though, because no, he hasn't changed.

The idea that we, in our current position shouldn't try to improve on our finishing, because it hasn't yet cost us, is just dumb though, and of course salah is the weakest link there, because you are more likely to find a genius young finisher who is fast but doesn't need to track back as much, than you are to find a firmino with more goals ( aka the world's most valuable player) or mane, who does track back.

 

[moron]

Had dinner with my cousins who were visiting from Oxford yesterday and of course we end up talking football. My cousin is pretty smart, well traveled and has relatives on his side in Egypt. Oh, and he's a Man U fan.

So, my cousin suddenly goes "you know that Salah is going to leave, right?"
"What tells you that?"
He goes "did you see how he celebrated the goal against Man U?"
"For a guy who used to be humble, to suddenly take off his shirt and show his abs and shaved chest, to me it looks like he's starting to care more about himself than the team".
He adds, "did you also notice that he's a little bit more selfish now?"

I said that I've never seen it from that perspective before, but that he could have a point.
My cousins are muslim as well so they mentioned the Christmas tree thing as well and "Mané's" tantrum.

So, has Salah changed?

I have noticed this as well, no prostrations anymore, dont care about the christmas tree, we all do that sort of stuff so that our children take part in local custom celebrations.

But the again we have no right to questions a mans faith, and secondly maybe he has been told to keep any religious type acts out of football. Its the way it is, as for his selfishness, he is allowed considering its something inherent in all major goal scorers.

 

[rubans]

Oh gosh, another Salah thread but this time on a diff angle. Good stuff.

 

[rubans]

I think a couple of other prominent Muslims had the same abuse, Amir Khan was one that I remember.
Getting abuse for integrating and respecting our customs sums up the thinking of some people.

https://www.metro.co.uk/2019/12/27/...f-trolled-christmas-tree-muslim-11965904/amp/

It’s minority from other side sometimes say your not Christian so why you celebrating Christmas. You can’t win...

 

[Woland]

The first time I took any notice of him getting interviewed post match was after Roma away a couple of years ago. He said nothing about his team mates, the club, Klopp, the fans, it was only about himself. When I watched that I was pretty sure he was off as it was clear the only thing that matters to Salah is Salah, but I was wrong.

He hasn't changed, he's always been this way

 

[hmmmmm1]

Strikers have always been selfish.

He can do what he likes as he still banging in the goals and a key player as our creative outlet.

 

[moron]

The first time I took any notice of him getting interviewed post match was after Roma away a couple of years ago. He said nothing about his team mates, the club, Klopp, the fans, it was only about himself. When I watched that I was pretty sure he was off as it was clear the only thing that matters to Salah is Salah, but I was wrong.

He hasn't changed, he's always been this way

Spot on this, although he did say how important the win against man united was for the team. I think his ambition is to be the MAN for LFC, is it ego or is it just sheer ambition to be seen as the hero ? He loves the praise from the fans, and to some extent all this talk of selfishness maybe screwing up his game. I say let him be, we have not lost a game because of his selfishness yet - have we ? I think @Farkmaster has summed it up well in his response to cover all aspects.

 

[kingjulian]

Ah yes....let's get in to character assassination....i hope these posts gets moved to the other forum melt down thread.

 

[FoxForceFive]

He's not anymore selfish, just less of his shots go in than before.

He's a striker. His job is to score goals. He knows this.

He also has to contend with defenders literally barricading him in matches. Look at the replay for the second goal against wolves, when the ball finally gets half taken off him he has four players around him & a fifth following from behind.

The other side of that is the other players have so much more space & room simply because players are doing that.

He's also fouled more than other players. Way more. He had players more or less jumping on his back, hanging off his fucking neck, pulling him back, & kicking him fucking constantly, & he's stopped even appealing cos refs just seem to fucking allow it.

We're a much worse team without him in the side, even when he's missing sitters, anyone who thinks otherwise isn't watching us play properly.

 

[Farkmaster]

I agree that, especially when mane is not around, he gets double or even triple covered. That results in players being wide open ! I wonder what his logical course of action should be.

 

[bluebell]

He could do the dirty on his wife, I just couldn't care. With him in the team, do we stand a better chance of winning the league undefeated, and the CL? If Klopp, to wants to sell him, or he wants to go, I'll be okay with it. He hasn't screwed us or disrespected the club.

 

[Fallon]

Look at his stats, remember that 9 times out of 10 he puts a great shift in (even if he doesn't score), look at the table, and then close this thread.

 

[HC]

Nah he's not changed , the best goal scorers are inherently greedy and Salah whilst isn't probably in the top grade of goal scorers he is class and will want to show that off.

I was rueing his selfish attitude against wolves but we all know against west ham or whoever he could do similar and win the match with a worldie

 

[Mors]

I don't think he's as clinical with his chances as he was the first couple of seasons. He got himself a huge new contract around that time too. I'm not saying it's the case with Salah but there are plenty of players that go to shit after they score a huge contract.
I suspect that other teams are onto him a bit more now aswell and now where he he's going to run or what he's going to try when they do their pre-match research and try and cancel him out as much as they can.

 

[MaBigTip]

He's not anymore selfish, just less of his shots go in than before.

He's a striker. His job is to score goals. He knows this.

He also has to contend with defenders literally barricading him in matches. Look at the replay for the second goal against wolves, when the ball finally gets half taken off him he has four players around him & a fifth following from behind.

The other side of that is the other players have so much more space & room simply because players are doing that.

He's also fouled more than other players. Way more. He had players more or less jumping on his back, hanging off his fucking neck, pulling him back, & kicking him fucking constantly, & he's stopped even appealing cos refs just seem to fucking allow it.

We're a much worse team without him in the side, even when he's missing sitters, anyone who thinks otherwise isn't watching us play properly.

I don't think that was what is being asked or anyone has said it... If it is I'd have to change my answer.

I mean he has changed in many ways since we first got him... his finishing hasn't been as good, he is a better dribbler, his right foot is better, he doesn't track back as much, he vacates the wing more often, he is definitely more selfish, he doesn't get half the easy chances he used to due to the added attention. But he is still a phenomenal player and makes us infinitely better. However, I do think he is the most likely of the first XI to want to jump ship as soon as we have won it all. I think that is why we may end up with one of the top 5 young attacking players in the world.

 

[gene hughes]

I think we’ll start replacing the front 3 one by one starting this summer. It would be hard to replace both salah and mane at the same time so I think one will leave this summer and one next summer. We’re going to get good fees for them having had the best years of their careers.

 

[momoWASboss]

That’s how I see it going.

 

[Woland]

Hope not. I'd rather recruit and give it a year before anyone crucial left.

And its not character assassination to say Salah is selfish and cares less about the club than most of them, it's obvious. He's the Owen to Mane's Fowler. Nothing wrong with that, it's just how it is.