Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah said he had been “thrown under the bus” as he tore into the club over his treatment and signalled a potential exit, after watching from the bench as they were held to a 3-3 Premier League draw with Leeds United on Saturday.
In his incendiary post-match comments, the 33-year-old Egyptian lashed out at the club and coach Arne Slot, telling journalists he felt he had been scapegoated for their poor start to the season and suggesting that he may not have long left at Anfield.
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“I’m very, very disappointed to be fair. I have done so much for this club, everybody can see that during the years and especially last season,” Salah told reporters in the post-match mixed zone, before taking aim at the club’s leadership.
“I don’t know, it seems like the club is throwing me under the bus. That’s how I felt it, how I feel it.
“I think it’s very clear that someone wants me to get all the blame. The club promised me in the summer, a lot of promises and nothing so far.”
The Egyptian, who signed a two-year contract extension in April, has become an iconic figure in an eight-year spell at Liverpool in which he won two Premier League titles and scored 250 goals in all competitions for the club.
Yet after an indifferent start to the season, he has begun the last three matches on the bench, playing only 45 minutes.
Liverpool visit Inter Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday before hosting Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday, two games that may herald the end of Salah’s time on Merseyside.
“I called my mum and dad yesterday, I told them to come to Brighton game, it doesn’t matter if I play or not. I’m going to enjoy it. We’ll see what’s going to happen, but in my head, I’m going to enjoy that game, if I play it or not, if I’m on the bench or not,” Salah, who is going to the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt on December 15, said.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen now, so I’m just going to be in Anfield, say goodbye to the fans (before) going to Africa Cup (of Nations), because I don’t know what’s going to happen when I’m there.”
‘We needed different players’
Speaking after the draw, Slot said he had left Salah on the bench because he felt the team needed something different.
“We were 2-0 up, we were 3-2 up. At that moment in time, it was more about controlling the game, and we didn’t need a goal at that moment in time,” he said.
“Normally, when you need a goal, like last week against Sunderland, I brought Mo on. We needed different players like Wataru (Endo) when we needed to bring the win over the line; he (Endo) gave everything.
“We have to accept the situation we are in. The short-term future of Mo is that he is going to the Africa Cup of Nations, but before that we play Inter Milan,” he concluded.
Salah scored 34 goals and had 18 assists in 52 games across all competitions as Liverpool won the Premier League last season, but with his side floundering, he has managed five goals and three assists in 19 games in the current campaign.
The forward indicated that his relationship with Slot had broken down completely.
“I had a good relationship with the manager, and all of a sudden we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, it seems to me, how I see it, someone doesn’t want me in the club,” he said.
Since joining Liverpool from AS Roma in 2017, Salah has become the club’s third-highest scorer behind Ian Rush and Roger Hunt.
“I don’t think I’m the problem. I have done so much for this club with the respect I want to get,” he said. “And I don’t have to go every day fighting for my position because I’ve earned it.”
