Mohamed Salah has launched another withering critique on Liverpool, the club he is set to depart after next weekend.
In Friday’s 4-2 defeat at Aston Villa, Salah came on as a late substitute, as the result cast into doubt fifth-placed Liverpool’s participation in next season’s Champions League. Arne Slot, the Liverpool manager with whom Salah has had a mixed relationship this season, came under fire.
On his social media accounts on Saturday, Salah did not hold back, and his comments will be widely construed as criticism of Slot, including a clear nod to the playing style of previous manager Jürgen Klopp. “I have witnessed this club go from doubters to believers, and from believers to champions,” began Salah’s post. “It took hard work and I always did everything I could to help the club get there. Nothing makes me prouder than that.”
Salah continued: “Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve. I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies.
“That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.”
Next weekend, Liverpool face Brentford in a game likely to decide their Champions League destiny, an Anfield occasion that is supposed to serve as a send-off to Salah. The Egyptian, scorer of 257 Liverpool goals, 191 in the Premier League, announced his departure in March, ripping up what had been a two-year extension signed last May.
Salah signed off with comments that again appear aimed at Slot, and the club hierarchy of the sporting director Richard Hughes and the chief executive of football, Michael Edwards: “Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about. All teams win games. Liverpool will always be a club that means a great deal to me and to my family.
“I want to see it succeed for long after I have moved on. As I’ve always said, qualifying to next season’s Champions League is the bare minimum and I will do everything I can to make that happen.”
Following Friday’s defeat, Slot, having been barracked by away fans, said: “I can understand that, at this moment in time, [the fans] don’t have a lot of confidence or a lot of feeling that things can be much better next season but I think then they are underestimating what a window can do, what a new start can do.”
The wide expectation has been that Liverpool executives will stick with Slot. An alternative contender, the former Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso, is reported to be close to becoming the new Chelsea manager.