Mohamed Salah is still annoyed with Jurgen Klopp for taking him off in Liverpool’s loss against Arsenal last weekend.
That’s according to TalkSPORT pundit Alan Brazil. In conversation with fellow pundit Ray Parlour, Brazil put forward Salah’s apparent lack of enthusiasm for his goals against Rangers as proof of his theory.
“He had the hump a little bit didn’t he Ray, he clearly didn’t like being taken off. His first two goals, did he really celebrate against Rangers? Not really,” claimed the former player. “But a lot of players do that.”
It’s clear that Salah isn’t a fan of being taken off in games, and it doesn’t usually happen to him. But with his performance way below-par at the Emirates, it’s hard to see how he could argue too much with Klopp’s decision.
Jurgen shows off his man-management?
Perhaps this was the ultimate bit of man-management from the Liverpool boss. Knowing Salah as he does, he will have had an idea of the kind of reaction taking him off in such a big game would have.
If it was designed to give the Egyptian a little bit of a kick up the backside, then it looks to have worked. Salah was back in the goals with a bang on Wednesday night.
In that respect, maybe it’s good to have the 30-year-old a little bit angry with his manager. Mo is a determined player who feeds of proving people wrong. If he needs that fire to return to his best, then we’ve no problem with that.
Angry Mo raring to drag Liverpool up the table
More realistically though, Salah is probably angrier with his own form than he is at anyone else.
He’s fallen well below the standards he’s set for himself in a Liverpool shirt so far this season. Some would pin a portion of the blame for that on Klopp, as he looks to be instructing him to play a little more as a traditional winger this season.
But Salah is unlikely to grumble too much at tactical instructions. It was Jurgen’s ideas that gave him the keys to become one of the most prolific wide men in the history of the game after all.
Either way, Liverpool’s No.11 is sure to be back in the starting line-up against Manchester City this Sunday. Having accumulated near-enough a full 90-minute rest over the last two games, he should be raring to go.
Angry Mo is one of the best versions of Salah we’ve seen. He won’t be satisfied until he’s fired his team back up the league table.
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