The Cost of Inaction vs. The Cost of Action
FSG now have a Mohamed Salah issue as well as an Arne Slot one
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
The heady days of the summer transfer business at Liverpool now seems a long time ago, and a season that has descended into chaos took another unexpected twist on Saturday night.
When Ao Tanaka struck six minutes into injury time to hand Leeds United a share of the spoils with a 3-3 draw at Elland Road on Saturday evening, the focus was ready to shift to how the Reds became the architects of their own downfall once more, throwing away what was a comfortable 2-0 lead with 18 minutes left to play.
It was the latest display of mental fragility from Arne Slot’s side, and the mentality required to see out games and grind out results has long since departed this current crop at Anfield. Whether or not Slot remains to be able to summon it once more remains to be seen, as regardless of the posturing around backing the manager to the hilt, there is only so much that will be accepted by the powers that be at Fenway Sports Group.
But it wasn’t just unpicking the latest defensive debacle that cost Liverpool two points.
Mohamed Salah, one of the all-time greats of Liverpool Football Club. A man who has transcended the sport and found his way to the very heart of what it is to be a Red, and to be adored by the legions of fans around the world, opted to hit the nuclear button when he spoke to assembled media heading through the mixed zone after the final whistle at the weekend.
The ‘Egyptian King’, of course, was understandably frustrated. Footballers want to play. Supremely talented footballers expect to play. Club legends demand to play. For Salah, it was the third game in succession where he had been benched, but this time he wasn’t called upon to ignite a Liverpool response. He was left to sit there and watch on, the cameras fixed on him watching a side he helped lead to the Premier League title earlier this year crumble once more in a game they really should’ve won.
When quizzed after the game, Salah said: “(I couldn’t believe) That I’m sitting on the bench for 90 minutes! The third time on the bench, I think for the first time in my career. I’m very, very disappointed to be fair. I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season.
“Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.
“I got a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am on the bench for three games so I can’t say they keep the promise.
“I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.
“This club, I always support it. My kids will always support it. I love the club so much I will always do. I called my mum yesterday - you guys didn’t know if I would start or not, but I knew.
“Yesterday I said to them, come to the Brighton game. I don’t know if I am going to play or not but I am going to enjoy it. In my heads, I’m going to enjoy that game because I don’t know what is going to happen now.
“I will be in Anfield to say goodbye to the fans and go the Africa Cup (of Nations). I don’t know what is going to happen when I am there.”
While his claim that it has been the club as a collective that has thrown him under the bus was interesting, reading between the lines his issue lies with Slot, and Slot’s with Salah. The 34-year-old, who penned a two-year extension to his deal back in April, has been left out of the visit to Internazionale in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday evening. Is there a road back for him? Maybe. But is there a road back for Slot after not only overseeing an abysmal start to the 2025/26 Premier League season, but also alienating one of the greatest players ever to have pulled on a red shirt for Liverpool?
FSG did not envisage these kinds of problems.
