Liverpool know Mohamed Salah contract reality as Jürgen Klopp admission shows new challenge
In the 95th and penultimate minute of Saturday’s Merseyside derby, Liverpool launched a dangerous attack that very nearly changed the perceptions of the match and gave the Reds the lead.
Andy Robertson slid the ball to Luis Díaz on the edge of the D, and the Colombian swivelled expertly before teeing up Mohamed Salah. Salah swept the ball goalwards first time with the side of his left foot and, via a slight touch from man-of-the-match Jordan Pickford, it came back off the post.
It was another example of elite-level football being defined by the finest of margins. Salah was a mere fraction away from heroism and from producing another iconic moment in the modern history of Liverpool Football Club.
Instead, however, the Reds dropped another two points, compounding their early-season woes, and Salah has come in for individual criticism, most notably from Graeme Souness.
"I just hope — and he's signed the big contract he wanted — but at this level, if you knock off half a per cent or one per cent then you are not the same player," the former Liverpool captain said on Sky Sports (via The Mirror).
"I hope this is not him getting semi-into his armchair because he has signed a big contract. I'm saying that as a Liverpool supporter, hopefully to make him angry and prove me wrong."
Souness is aware of his reach — that much is clear when he implies that the player will read his comments — and he may be hunting for headlines. Whatever his true intention, these remarks were bizarre and ill-founded.
Salah told Sky Sports last month that 'he wants the Premier League so bad this year' and that speaks to his enduring desperation.
Like the rest of his teammates no doubt, he still yearns for a league title celebration in front of the supporters, and the profound hurt of May 2022 only offers an added incentive for the upcoming season. It was Salah, let’s not forget, who thought he had won the league for Liverpool when he put the Reds in front against Wolves on the final day, only for the heartbreaking truth to quickly emerge.
"In my mind, if I don’t score goals, we won’t win the Premier League," he said in that same Sky interview. He may have only netted twice in his first six matches this season, but that’s not because he’s settled into his ‘armchair’.
In 2021/22, he averaged 4.45 shots per 90 minutes, but this year, that’s fallen to 2.83. In tandem with that, his average xG per 90 has sunk from 0.8 to 0.52. Salah is still sixth in the Premier League for total xG (3.1), but that’s a decidedly underwhelming position for a player who led the entire division by a considerable margin last season (he recorded 24.36, with Son Heung-min second on 20.69).
This year, he finds himself below Aleksandar Mitrović of Fulham and Ivan Toney of Brentford, though both players admittedly have taken penalties. Perhaps, if Souness wanted, he could use this drop-off to justify his argument, but it’s not as if Salah is offering nothing. Quite the contrary, in fact.
