Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard spoke diplomatically about the Mohamed Salah and Arnie Slot dispute, acknowledging the Egyptian star’s right to be angry about being overlooked. However, he argued that Salah’s comments about being made a “scapegoat” for the team’s poor results were inaccurate.
Jamie Carragher criticized Salah, accusing him of selfishness for his fierce attack on Slot, who promptly dropped the “Egyptian King” from the Champions League match against Inter Milan on Tuesday.
Gerrard addressed the issue, saying, “He’s obviously really upset about not playing, and I respect that. He won’t be happy being left out of the squad, and I respect that too.”
He added, “But those few comments about him being made a scapegoat are wrong. He needs to tone down that statement.”
He concluded, “He needs to sort this out with the manager.” This requires Virgil van Dijk to step in and say, ‘How are we going to resolve this for the benefit not just of the club or the team, but the fans?’
He continued, ‘I’ve seen this and experienced it. I experienced it with [Luis] Suarez when he had a falling out with Brendan [Rodgers]. I’ve seen it all, I myself have been in similar circumstances from a personal perspective. I did something similar to Salah’s 30-second statement against [Manchester] United when I was sent off. So, nobody’s perfect.’
He went on, ‘We’ve all lost our tempers as players. We’ve all done emotional things. And I know that in time, when all this has calmed down, Mo will say, ‘I shouldn’t have said that, maybe I shouldn’t have said that, I was a bit emotional, I was a bit hasty.’
He concluded, ‘But ultimately, Liverpool needs Mohamed Salah, to get back to playing well, to get back to scoring goals, because he’s the best player, the best goalscorer, and he’ll help them get out of this mess.’
