Mohamed Salah\u2019s recent spell on the sidelines has revealed a problem at Liverpool that goes beyond a single selection dispute. After three matches on the bench and an outspoken moment with reporters, Salah was omitted from the travelling squad for the Champions League trip to Italy. He later returned to the bench for the Premier League win over Brighton & Hove Albion, came on and provided an assist, and has since departed for the Africa Cup of Nations without a clear resolution.<\/p>\n
A Daily Mail Q&A with reporters close to the club suggested the issue is not solely about minutes. The claim is that Salah was not “overly convinced” by Liverpool\u2019s summer business and by the idea that Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, bought in record-breaking deals for a combined \u00a3241 million ($323.2 million), were the players to lead the attack going forward.<\/p>\n
Those observers note a personal element. Salah was known to be close with Darwin N\u00fa\u00f1ez and Lu\u00eds Diaz and was upset when a Liverpool fan account on social media “disrespected” the departed pair after the transfer window. There have also been repeated suggestions that he has been dismissive towards Wirtz, with one widely cited example being Salah\u2019s reluctance to pass to the German for a simple finish during a Champions League win over Eintracht Frankfurt in October. Wirtz is still searching for his first goal as the weight of his price tag remains a talking point.<\/p>\n
The prevailing theory is that Salah stopping to speak to reporters after the Leeds game was not entirely spontaneous; sources say tensions had been building over weeks and months. Time away at AFCON could soothe relations, or it could allow grievances to fester if not addressed directly.<\/p>\n
Liverpool, for their part, are reported to intend to keep Salah through the January window and until his contract ends in 2027. If the 33-year-old does not believe he can continue at the club, he has not publicly said so. There are likely suitors from Saudi Arabia and Major League Soccer, and, according to reports, the ball currently rests with Salah and how the club chooses to respond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Benched, then off to AFCON: Salah\u2019s frustration exposes questions about Liverpool\u2019s summer signings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1163],"tags":[1211,195,1304],"class_list":["post-5189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-transfers","tag-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-alexander-isak","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}