Mohamed Salah has risked damaging his incredible legacy at Liverpool after speaking out against Arne Slot on Saturday night.
The Egyptian has been dropped for the Reds recently, playing only 45 minutes across the last three matches.
The reason for Salah being out of the team is not, as the 33-year-old suggests, a personal attack on his character, but rather a response to some dismal form.
Who do you think should go, Salah or Slot?
Salah’s inability to help out in a defensive sense has cost Liverpool more than once this season, and while he has been offering little going forward the argument to take him out of the team was a strong one.
The veteran could have taken it on the chin, worked hard and fought to win his place back. Instead, he has gone down a selfish and needless path.
Debate often rages amongst Liverpool supporters about who is the bigger legend, Salah or Steven Gerrard.
Interestingly, Gerrard faced a similar situation in 2014 when Brendan Rodgers attempted to phase him out of the team. But the Scouser’s reaction was completely at odds with Salah’s, and should end debate over who holds the bigger legendary status once and for all.
Steven Gerrard never made it all about himself
If there is one player in Liverpool’s history who could have a claim to being a one-man team it is Gerrard.
The Liverpool academy graduate put some of the worst Reds teams in recent memory on his back and delivered trophy after trophy.
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Nevertheless, as the 2014/15 season got underway it was clear that Gerrard was no longer the player he was once. Rodgers had begun managing his minutes, with a benching away at Real Madrid in the Champions League a particular lowlight.
Had he been minded to, Gerrard could easily have come out against the manager, who at the time was under similar pressure to that which Slot currently faces at Liverpool.
Who is the bigger Liverpool legend, Salah or Gerrard?
But the then captain never did. As far as he went was to declare that he may leave Liverpool if they did not offer him a new contract.
“I won’t be retiring this summer. I will play beyond this season,” Gerrard said in October 2014. “We will have to wait and see if that’s at Liverpool or somewhere else. That’s Liverpool’s decision.”
Liverpool did offer their skipper a new deal, but with Gerrard disappointed at the terms on offer, he left the club the following summer. Despite his exit, the legendary No. 8 never once made it out to be a personal attack in the manner Salah has.
Gerrard admitted Brendan Rodgers was to blame
Looking back, the summer of 2015 probably was the right time for Gerrard to leave from a footballing perspective.
It would have been brilliant to see the Scouser line up under Jurgen Klopp, which he would have done for a short time had he signed a new deal.
However, he ultimately went on to disappoint with LA Galaxy and was hanging up his boots for good one year later.
Still, after all he had given to the club, Gerrard did deserve the contract he wanted at Liverpool. That he did not get it clearly rankled with him. Instead of blaming the club he loved, though, ‘Stevie G’ waited until he had left, before admitting that Rodgers had made his decision to leave far easier.
“When I was told I wasn’t playing [against Real Madrid] for the sake of the team and the squad and my relationship with Brendan, I took it and I accepted it,” he said in June 2015.
“It sort of pushed me more towards making the decision to move on and try something different.”
Keeping a dignified silence until he was out of the exit door was exactly the kind of way you would expect a player of Gerrard’s stature to handle things. The same should have been anticipated of Salah.
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