Liverpool FC legend Steven Gerrard has waded into Mohamed Salah v Arne Slot, with some measured comments to calm this whole situation down. Speaking on a roundtable segment that aired on TNT Sports, Gerrard empathised with Salah’s frustration, but felt he went about expressing them in the wrong manner.
“He’s obviously really upset he’s not playing, which I respect. He won’t sit out of the team, which I respect.”
“[There were] a couple of lines about throwing people under the bus – wrong. He needs to reverse a little bit away from that. He needs to deal with that with the manager. ”
“This needs Virgil van Dijk to say, ‘how are we sorting this out for the benefit of…’ not even so much the club or the team – it’s the fans.”
“I’ve seen this, and I’ve lived it, with [Luis] Suarez when he fell out with Brendan [Rodgers], face to face. I’ve seen it all.”
“I’ve been there myself from a personal point of view: I did the [equivalent of the] Salah statement [on the pitch] when I got sent off after 30 seconds against [Manchester] United.”
“No one’s perfect, we’ve all had head losses as players, we’ve all done emotional things. I know in time when it calms down, Mo will go, ‘I shouldn’t have said that, I maybe shouldn’t have said that, I was a bit emotional and I was a bit hasty.’”
“At the end of the day, Liverpool need Mo Salah back playing well, back scoring goals, because he is their best player, their best scorer, and he will help them get out of this.”
“If this goes on, this is bigger than what we all know and what we see.”
Hours later, the former Liverpool captain was back on TNT Sports’ cameras for the Champions League game between Manchester City and Real Madrid, and once again chimed in on the situation:
“As someone who is connected to the club, got a lot of respect for the club and the players and the hierarchy there, what I tried to do on the show is try and get a bit of common sense and pour a bit of cold water on the situation.”
“We all know that he’s done this explosive interview. He said a couple of lines within the interview that are wrong, and I think he needs to apologize for that.”
“I hope that Virgil van Dijk, as his captain, as his leader, will help put that together. I’ve been in that situation myself.”
“The reality is, as a Liverpool fan now, Mohamed Salah is a world-class footballer, and he’s Liverpool’s best goalscorer.”
“He helped win the league last year, so we can’t all have short memories. He’s really important for the football club, unless the situation’s a lot worse than what we’re seeing.
“But from a fan point of view and an ex-player point of view, I wanted to put some common sense into it. He’s a world-class footballer.”
“We need him, and hopefully the situation can be sorted out in the coming hours and days because no one, from a Liverpool perspective, needs this to go on.”
“The result last night helped. They were fantastic. It was a top team performance. Another lift would be for this situation to be sorted out by the weekend, and he’s in the squad for the Brighton game.”
“But the players last night and Arne Slot’s game plan and the tactics were magnificent. It’s the best Liverpool performance we’ve seen for some time. So hopefully, we start getting back to talking about the team’s results and performances.”
Hopefully, Salah will take heed from Gerrard’s words. As a fellow world-class footballer in his time, his comments were actually really vulnerable and self-reflective of his own similar struggles during his time at the club. Like he said, it’s just a little bit of common sense.
