Mo Salah 2025/26 Season

[Markeh ★]

i’m more worried about replacing him than anything and i’d be willing to give gakpo a try in a new look front 3 but ultimately i think we might need better than him too. then there’s the konate problem to deal with.

how are we pulling this off after last summer.

 

[i_rushie]

He shouldn't be washing our dirty linen in public but this will put a microscope over Slot's tendency to alienate players.

 

[Farkmaster ★]

Look, it's not one or the other, and I'm not surprised and I'm annoyed at how predictable this is... However, Salah is literally saying "why is it always me?"

That's not a functioning adult. That's the grade A unreflective narcissism of a certain kind of top top striker, who is playing in a form that wouldn't help any premier league team, let alone us.

Hes, once again demonstrating he will not help a team that is shit on the pitch, and he won't help off it.

And we are shit.

So get rid of him. Slot will go too if he can't fix shit now, and then the table is clear for the next manager.

There was no future with Salah anyway. Now he's made it obvious. I don't understand why anyone would defend him though. This is supremely unhelpful behavior, and it's exactly why he was played, undeservedly, for game after game after game after game, which he has zero awareness of.

People on here argued that he was a leader. He is the opposite. He's dragging us through the shit.

The good news is he's finished and he needs to leave anyway.

 

[Dreambeliever]

Guehi would fall to bits under our current non-existant coaching too

I highly doubt that.

 

[Farkmaster ★]

I highly doubt that.

The vast majority of our players look worse than last year whether they played for us or not, and look better in internationals. Guehi would look worse for us than now, by a lot, and he's a fairly unremarkable player to begin with.

 

[Farkmaster ★]

“I have done so much for Liverpool and I don’t have to go everyday fighting for my position cause I earned it.”

-Salah

Slot to me is irrelevant here. I don't want any manager to want that at the club.

 

[rurikbird]

I think @peekay is right - this Salah thing had bought Slot more time. However, in the larger scheme of things it won’t matter. Salah will go to AFCON and never come back and Slot will be sacked around Christmas to give the new manager time to refresh the squad in January.

 

[Farkmaster ★]

I don't know why it would buy him more time.

If it did, it'd be a massive indictment of Edwards etc. This is the opposite of moneyball. So you buy a bunch of players who aren't appropriately profiled. You resign one who is old, at massive cost, who athletically is in significant, obvious decline. You then don't put anything in place to manage their leaving. We are the Yankees in that situation, not the Oakland A's.

If they think slot gets more time due to this mess, then it's because it's their mess.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

“I have done so much for Liverpool and I don’t have to go everyday fighting for my position cause I earned it.”

-Salah

Slot to me is irrelevant here. I don't want any manager to want that at the club.

Yup ...

 

[Hyena ★]

Hughes and Slot have long decided to sell Mo this winter imo. They've created a situation where Mo felt compelled to speak his mind and shatter the illusion of a loyal servant, a la Henderson. Now he's dispensible.

He's walked right into this one.

 

[King Binny]

View: https://x.com/StanCollymore/status/1997525775562502240

Mo Salah. A very long read.

I think I know a little about LFC, its supporters and how they view their club. Shaped of course by Shankly then Paisley, Kenny, Jurgen and now now Slot.

One thing remains constant, perhaps more than any other English club, its always the club first and last, players and managers add their DNA to the club, but the club trumps the individual.

Now, Mo Salah has left plenty of winners DNA at Anfield and has taken his place in the pantheon of greats.

So it's interesting to see his interview, dropping a grenade into the club because if I know Liverpool and it's supporters at all (I think there may be even a generational difference in responses, younger supporting the grenade, older shaking their heads) then their first reaction will be..

Club, first and last, don't care who it is. Its a living and breathing mantra and one that even Mo Salah will find it difficult to duke it out against.

Now, could Arne Slot be less pally with players than Jurgen? Absolutely, he's a calm, relaxed, tad detached guy who ( if you remember) was unimpressed with Trent early doors and showed a nonchalant attitude in season one to "one of their own" who'd won everything there is to win. I think that's impressive, but not as impressive as winning the title in your first season. So he's earned his respect too.

The team are playing well in spurts, comedy defending and decision making at other times. That includes everyone, and if you ask 99.9% of players if they'd accept 2 or 3 games on the bench for not hitting levels, all will say yes. Only in the madness of 2025 modern football would the cult of personalities not only question a reasonable conclusion of "you're not playing well, here's a spell on the bench", but Mo maybe has almost tricked himself onto elevating himself to the untouchable status of Messi or Ronaldo, players who could, if they chose, literally do and say as they pleased in the last decade. Mo isn't them, and Liverpool as I said, isn't that club either.

I'm sure some of the youngsters will rant "he's right and Slot's to blame ", but without any evidence that Slot has deliberately ( managers NEED their star players to perform, not to be asked about them in every presser for the next 5 months....) ostracised anyone at the club other than do what every good manager has done since the invention of the game, namely leave someone out who's not playing well misses the point as every great club, team and manager have dropped great players at some stage. Some even when playing well!!

The solution to what is now a very open sore is simple (ish)

1. Player and manager talk privately.
2. Manager tells player what he wants from the player.
3. Player commits or tells manager he wants out.
4. If player wants out, make it happen quickly. If not, pick the player and let him be judged by his continued performances. If they're poor, manager can't lose, "I told you so". If they're great, manager can't lose. So Slot playing Mo is a very good starting point, especially as 2 very big signings have yet to make Mo " yesterday's man"

Arne Slot can help himself a little by using his natural openness to say " maybe I'm not Jurgen but I love my players and they couldn't have won a spectacular title last season without reacting to me and my methods a little too, but I hear Mo's comments and I can tell you all now, I love him to bits and he's ours to keep". That heads off any "seniors" with similar grenades to throw.

But one thing's for sure, I don't think there will ever be a Liverpool player past, present or future with valid gripes that would jeopardise the "club first and last" ethos of Liverpool, and those who've had legitimate concerns I'm sure aired them at an appropriate time, not a flash interview when emotions are high.

Liverpool FC have done as well for every player who's played for them as players have done for the club, so the institution has earned that private, rather than public critique. Whoever that's from.


View: https://x.com/OllieHolt22/status/1997509464128450817

 

[Beamrider ★]

Torching your legacy because you can’t deal with being dropped after being shite all season.
What a tragic end for one of our all-time greats. But it has to be the end. He hasn’t just disrespected Slot, he’s disrespected the club and the fans too. Knocked a chunk off his value in the process.
They both have to go, the order is unimportant.
Ideal world they sort out a deal for Mo to leave in Jan then Slot goes after that’s announced.
No way back for either of them.

 

[Dreambeliever]

I think @peekay is right - this Salah thing had bought Slot more time. However, in the larger scheme of things it won’t matter. Salah will go to AFCON and never come back and Slot will be sacked around Christmas to give the new manager time to refresh the squad in January.

I would not be surprised to see Salah return depending on who is manager if there is a new one.

 

[Frogfish]

I think being dropped completely and not even getting minutes while other underperforming haven’t is the point.

It’s weird we went from he can’t even be taken off to his dropped completely.

Yeah but he HASN'T been the only one has he?!

Only our CBs (because we haven't got a reliable backup) have been immune from being benched.

However in midfield and up front there's been rotation trying to find a solution. Gravy and Szobo are the standouts and haven't need benching. Gakpo, though many dislike him, at least tracks and works back, whilst also scoring a few. Even he has been rotated though. Wirtz was benched. Kerkez was benched. Robertson benched. Jones benched. Macca benched.

The difference is nothing really worked (and none of them moaned) - until we benched Salah. You could immediately see that we played more as a team, far far from last season's level, but still much better. That's why he wasn't brought on yesterday, because, ironically as it turns out, Slot was trying to solidify the midfield/defence and Salah wasn't going to be of any use in that situation. We can't afford to carry a passenger and Salah is clearly that at times.

If he wanted to stay in the team then he should have been prepared to put in the effort to be part of that team, to track back and help out the defence as every other player in the PL does. But he didn't and wasn't prepared to. I am the great Salah, look at my history ... which means SFA when the team needs you to pitch in and you can't be arsed.

 

[Frogfish]

He did but he’s still our star player and didn’t get a single minute against Leeds when we were cruising and when we needed a goal.

I understand why he’s confused.

We didn't need him as we were controlling the match (because we had 11 players not a 10+1) and then went 2-0 up. When we needed to lock it down (and ironically because we became far worse) he wasn't the player to help us do that.

 

[Frogfish]

View: https://x.com/StanCollymore/status/1997525775562502240

Mo Salah. A very long read.

I think I know a little about LFC, its supporters and how they view their club. Shaped of course by Shankly then Paisley, Kenny, Jurgen and now now Slot.

One thing remains constant, perhaps more than any other English club, its always the club first and last, players and managers add their DNA to the club, but the club trumps the individual.

Now, Mo Salah has left plenty of winners DNA at Anfield and has taken his place in the pantheon of greats.

So it's interesting to see his interview, dropping a grenade into the club because if I know Liverpool and it's supporters at all (I think there may be even a generational difference in responses, younger supporting the grenade, older shaking their heads) then their first reaction will be..

Club, first and last, don't care who it is. Its a living and breathing mantra and one that even Mo Salah will find it difficult to duke it out against.

Now, could Arne Slot be less pally with players than Jurgen? Absolutely, he's a calm, relaxed, tad detached guy who ( if you remember) was unimpressed with Trent early doors and showed a nonchalant attitude in season one to "one of their own" who'd won everything there is to win. I think that's impressive, but not as impressive as winning the title in your first season. So he's earned his respect too.

The team are playing well in spurts, comedy defending and decision making at other times. That includes everyone, and if you ask 99.9% of players if they'd accept 2 or 3 games on the bench for not hitting levels, all will say yes. Only in the madness of 2025 modern football would the cult of personalities not only question a reasonable conclusion of "you're not playing well, here's a spell on the bench", but Mo maybe has almost tricked himself onto elevating himself to the untouchable status of Messi or Ronaldo, players who could, if they chose, literally do and say as they pleased in the last decade. Mo isn't them, and Liverpool as I said, isn't that club either.

I'm sure some of the youngsters will rant "he's right and Slot's to blame ", but without any evidence that Slot has deliberately ( managers NEED their star players to perform, not to be asked about them in every presser for the next 5 months....) ostracised anyone at the club other than do what every good manager has done since the invention of the game, namely leave someone out who's not playing well misses the point as every great club, team and manager have dropped great players at some stage. Some even when playing well!!

The solution to what is now a very open sore is simple (ish)

1. Player and manager talk privately.
2. Manager tells player what he wants from the player.
3. Player commits or tells manager he wants out.
4. If player wants out, make it happen quickly. If not, pick the player and let him be judged by his continued performances. If they're poor, manager can't lose, "I told you so". If they're great, manager can't lose. So Slot playing Mo is a very good starting point, especially as 2 very big signings have yet to make Mo " yesterday's man"

Arne Slot can help himself a little by using his natural openness to say " maybe I'm not Jurgen but I love my players and they couldn't have won a spectacular title last season without reacting to me and my methods a little too, but I hear Mo's comments and I can tell you all now, I love him to bits and he's ours to keep". That heads off any "seniors" with similar grenades to throw.

But one thing's for sure, I don't think there will ever be a Liverpool player past, present or future with valid gripes that would jeopardise the "club first and last" ethos of Liverpool, and those who've had legitimate concerns I'm sure aired them at an appropriate time, not a flash interview when emotions are high.

Liverpool FC have done as well for every player who's played for them as players have done for the club, so the institution has earned that private, rather than public critique. Whoever that's from.


View: https://x.com/OllieHolt22/status/1997509464128450817

Stan the Man nailed it.