Mohamed Salah is showing that Liverpool may have been wrong to let him leave for nothing this summer as Egypt continue to make progress at the World Cup.
The Reds had a clear plan in how to replace their legendary former No. 11, with Yan Diomande targeted as the next man up.
But Diomande has decided he would prefer to join Paris Saint-Germain, and with the alternatives not looking especially top-level, Liverpool are pondering where to turn next.
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Meanwhile, Salah is making a case for himself at the World Cup, and after scoring a Panenka penalty during Friday’s last-32 shootout win over Australia, Rousing The Kop asked readers on social media whether the 34-year-old should come back. Surprisingly, the reaction was overwhelmingly negative.
Liverpool fans do not want Salah back
Despite Salah turning in a decent performance against Australia, he perhaps did not dominate the game as he once would have. It is perhaps for this reason that fans on RTK’s X page were so against bringing the veteran back to work under Andoni Iraola.
“Can we please move on,” one supporter said. “Salah is way way past his best and last time I checked Liverpool Football Club wasn’t a retirement home. That’s what Saudi league is for. Thanks for everything Mo now go and top up the pension in Saudi Arabia.”
“That’s nostalgia talking,” another agreed. “He didn’t have a good game against the Aussies. – yes I appreciate he was carrying a bit of an injury. I haven’t seen anything of Salah in WC so far to suggest he should come back to LFC. Iraola’s system would not suit his current level. Mo – 4eva a legend.”
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“He had one mazy run in 120 minutes last game and looked terrified to take his pen,” one more fan argued. “Salah has gone. Yes he is a legend and will always be but he’s not playing for Liverpool again.”
“World Cup has been dominated by pensioners and I’m afraid Mo wasn’t dominating last night,” was another comment, with someone else dismissing the mere suggestion as ‘romantic nonsense.’
Some lone voices of support remain for Salah
Although fans were surprisingly – but probably correctly – largely against Salah coming back, there were one or two who believed that in a footballing sense, the Egyptian King can still offer something worthwhile.
“100% would bring him back for squad rotation,” one fan said. “He’s still a game changer. Could be deadly coming on in the final 15 mins or so and good competition for whoever else we get for that wing.”
Others followed that same theme, with one claiming: “if Salah agrees to lower pay and accepts being a squad player,” then he could return.
“I’d love him to [come back] but I think he has written off his time at Liverpool sadly,” another added.
“Come back home Salah. Enemies have gone,” one more supporter wrote on RTK’s Facebook page, but with the clear majority against bringing him back, it seems that this is what it always felt to be: a non-starter.
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