Mo Salah - Somewhere Else

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah refuses to rule out La Liga move

James Pearce

Mohamed Salah has suggested that he would be open to leaving Liverpool to play in Spain.

Salah, the Premier League’s joint-top goal scorer this season, is under contract at Liverpool until 2023 but has been repeatedly linked with a move elsewhere, with Real Madrid and Barcelona mooted as potential destinations.

And in a new interview with the Spanish newspaper MARCA, Salah said he could “one day” move from Liverpool to La Liga.

What did Salah say?

When asked whether he would be open to playing in Spain, Salah told MARCA: “I hope to be able to play for many more years. Why not?

“No one knows what’s going to happen in the future, so... maybe one day, yes.

“I hope to be doing the same thing that I’ve been doing in recent years. Winning trophies, scoring goals, helping my team win trophies...

“That’s the most important thing for me.”

Is this Salah pushing for a move away from Liverpool?

There is no suggestion at this stage that Salah is looking to leave Anfield this summer, but he’s clearly keeping his options open.

Salah turns 29 in June and there is the prospect that Liverpool may not have Champions League football on offer next season.

He’s about to enter the final two years of his contract this summer and over the course of this season his representatives have been keen to secure him a lucrative new deal.

Liverpool haven’t been in a rush to hand out massive pay increases during the pandemic.

Has he said similar before?

Yes, he has spoken previously about the attraction of playing in Spain at some stage in his career.

He told AS back in December: “I think Madrid and Barcelona are top clubs... we never know what is going to happen in the future. Everything is in the hands of the club.”

In the same interview, he complained about being overlooked for the captaincy when Jürgen Klopp gave the honour to Trent Alexander-Arnold for the Champions League dead rubber against Midtjylland.

How is the interview likely to be received by the club?

Klopp and other senior club figures will be relaxed about it.

There’s nothing significant in the interview that Salah hasn’t said before. Despite all the speculation and the cryptic tweet from the player’s agent, Salah’s attitude and commitment have been unwavering at the AXA Training Centre.

And while Liverpool have struggled this season, Salah remains level with Tottenham Hotspur’s Harry Kane in the chase for the Premier League Golden Boot and Klopp is planning for the future with Salah on board.

The Athletic

Salah is overrated anyway. He profits bigtime from Jürgen's system. He can't press, he can't tackle, he's a luxury player. I'd throw him into a deal if it brings us Mbappe or Haaland, maybe even Sancho. But I am also content if he stays. It's not that he hurts us. He's good, he's just not a world's top 3 player (he was for one season though).

Salah is overrated anyway. He profits bigtime from Jürgen's system. He can't press, he can't tackle, he's a luxury player. I'd throw him into a deal if it brings us Mbappe or Haaland, maybe even Sancho. But I am also content if he stays. It's not that he hurts us. He's good, he's just not a world's top 3 player (he was for one season though).

He may benefit from the system, but find me another player who has scored a similar level of goals as Mo in the last 4 years.  He does one of the hardest things in football -- scoring goals -- consistently.  As such, I have a hard time buying into your assessment that he is overrated. 

Also, go ahead and take Mbappe and Haaland off your wishlist -- neither one will be an LFC player any time soon (unfortunately).

He may benefit from the system, but find me another player who has scored a similar level of goals as Mo in the last 4 years.  He does one of the hardest things in football -- scoring goals -- consistently.  As such, I have a hard time buying into your assessment that he is overrated. 

Also, go ahead and take Mbappe and Haaland off your wishlist -- neither one will be an LFC player any time soon (unfortunately).

His goal contribution has declined every year, however. His league goals per season have been 32 ->22 -> 19 -> 17, of which 5 (maybe 6) are pk's which he did not take before this year, so it's really 11 or 12 for comparison purposes. With 9 games left it's unlikely he reaches last year's totals (from open play).

In the past 15 games he has scored in only 2 of them from open play, and in another one (City) from the spot. That is not good enough and a big part of our scoring problems since the start of the calendar year, but largely goes unmentioned.

His '17/18 season was absolutely magical. What he did that year was unbelievable and when he does leave he surely deserves a lot of praise and credit for what he has done here.

Salah is overrated anyway. He profits bigtime from Jürgen's system. He can't press, he can't tackle, he's a luxury player. I'd throw him into a deal if it brings us Mbappe or Haaland, maybe even Sancho. But I am also content if he stays. It's not that he hurts us. He's good, he's just not a world's top 3 player (he was for one season though).

Okay

His goal contribution has declined every year, however. His league goals per season have been 32 ->22 -> 19 -> 17, of which 5 (maybe 6) are pk's which he did not take before this year, so it's really 11 or 12 for comparison purposes. With 9 games left it's unlikely he reaches last year's totals (from open play).

In the past 15 games he has scored in only 2 of them from open play, and in another one (City) from the spot. That is not good enough and a big part of our scoring problems since the start of the calendar year, but largely goes unmentioned.

His '17/18 season was absolutely magical. What he did that year was unbelievable and when he does leave he surely deserves a lot of praise and credit for what he has done here.

And yet -- he's currently joint top scorer in the league this season...

A better question might be -- where would we be (in the table) without him?

And yet -- he's currently joint top scorer in the league this season...

A better question might be -- where would we be (in the table) without him?

No idea, but now imagine where we would be if he hadn't gone 12 out of the last 15 games without scoring?

The Mo Salah of a few years ago is untouchable, but the Salah of today, who contributes 15 goals a year from open play and takes pk's, is not irreplaceable. If selling him (or including him as part of the deal) would allow us to fund a Haaland/Mbappe type of acquisition, you do it without thinking twice.

Salah is overrated anyway.

Saying people are overrated is one of the most incorrectly used phrases there is.

Salah would be overrated if for instance people claimed he is the best in the world. However, most folks put him in the elite tier below Ronaldo, Messi, Lewandoski types. And that's right about where his performance lies. I don't think there's a team in the world that he wouldn't start for so he's not really overrated.

Salah is overrated anyway. He profits bigtime from Jürgen's system. He can't press, he can't tackle, he's a luxury player. I'd throw him into a deal if it brings us Mbappe or Haaland, maybe even Sancho. But I am also content if he stays. It's not that he hurts us. He's good, he's just not a world's top 3 player (he was for one season though).

Over rated?? Now I've heard it all!!!

Salah is overrated anyway. He profits bigtime from Jürgen's system. He can't press, he can't tackle, he's a luxury player. I'd throw him into a deal if it brings us Mbappe or Haaland, maybe even Sancho. But I am also content if he stays. It's not that he hurts us. He's good, he's just not a world's top 3 player (he was for one season though).

 

best laugh ive had in ages. cheers.

ps. Salah going nowhere, Usual leaded questions from the overseas press.

He may benefit from the system, but find me another player who has scored a similar level of goals as Mo in the last 4 years.  He does one of the hardest things in football -- scoring goals -- consistently.  As such, I have a hard time buying into your assessment that he is overrated. 

Also, go ahead and take Mbappe and Haaland off your wishlist -- neither one will be an LFC player any time soon (unfortunately).

Haaland doesn't fit our style of play at all, lazy player, basically just a tap-in merchant, which works well when playing for a dominant club like Dortmund in a weak league, probably why he favours a move to Spain.

Mbappe yes please, but agree it won't happen.

Haaland doesn't fit our style of play at all, lazy player, basically just a tap-in merchant, which works well when playing for a dominant club like Dortmund in a weak league, probably why he favours a move to Spain.

Mbappe yes please, but agree it won't happen.

Haaland? A tap-in merchant? Lazy?

Have you actually watched some BVB games or even some of his highlights? He's literally one of the most active strikers on the whole continent. He starts plays and makes lung bursting runs to finish those same moves. He's top 10 fastest players in the league and if you watch 20 mins of any game he's involved in you can see him makes use of that speed and bullies back-lines over and over again.

The fact that he is also smart in term of his positioning doesn't make him lazy and a tap-in merchant. That's just a trait most great strikers have. 

Haaland? A tap-in merchant? Lazy?

Have you actually watched some BVB games or even some of his highlights? He's literally one of the most active strikers on the whole continent. He starts plays and makes lung bursting runs to finish those same moves. He's top 10 fastest players in the league and if you watch 20 mins of any game he's involved in you can see him makes use of that speed and bullies back-lines over and over again.

The fact that he is also smart in term of his positioning doesn't make him lazy and a tap-in merchant. That's just a trait most great strikers have. 

I've watched him very closely, for Norway in three games now, where Josh King and Soerloth made him look average.  I didn't see any smarts, I didn't see any good use of strength, I didn't see any quickness and I didn't see any goals, even against Gibraltar!!

I fully acknowledge that he gets much better service playing for BvB than Norway but the best players, the very best players, do well whatever team they play in, a good example here is Zlatan Ibrahimovitch for Sweden.


All in all I think Haaland is a good forward but given the choice I wouldn't swap any of our front three for him.

Salah is overrated anyway.

Stops reading.

Jesus wept.

Stops reading.

Jesus wept.

Beggars belief. I know there are short memories but then there's that...

Salah is overrated anyway.

Such an average player Mo only a regular top PL goal scorer but can't even get prime Messi numbers every season we need to sell ASAP only Messi's allowed at LFC.

I’m still shocked people question Salah - the man is a legend.

If you can’t see that then there is no hope for you.

Interesting decision to do another interview with Marca so soon after the other one.

Pretty clear that he wants to play for one of the big two in Spain. Awkward situation for him though since neither of them will be able to afford him unless they sell some of their stars.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Another Salah interview in Spain. This time with Marca. <br>Are you keen to try out La Liga? &quot;I hope to be able to play for many more years. Why not? No-one knows what&#39;s going to happen in the future, so maybe one day, yes.&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#LFC</a> <a href="https://t.co/nqWOuWCjjH">https://t.co/nqWOuWCjjH</a></p>&mdash; James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) <a href="https://twitter.com/JamesPearceLFC/status/1376844079041024001?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I just struggle to see what he said he that is so wrong. This is what 95% of the players in the world would say if asked about maybe eventually playing in another league. The problem is the noise some of these journos decide to create around some quotes and people biting.

As much as I like Pearce, before reading the quote I was under the impression that Salah said something pretty drastic or that he was looking to play in La Liga in the near future. All he said is ''why not, maybe one day''. It's ridiculous to then take this and blow it this much out of proportion.

I’m still shocked people question Salah - the man is a legend.

If you can’t see that then there is no hope for you.

Absafuckinglootely mate, with idiot supporters saying sh*t like the numbers poster up there has, no wonder Mo would even contemplate leaving us!! F**k sake!!!

What more does the man have to do?

Absafuckinglootely mate, with idiot supporters saying sh*t like the numbers poster up there has, no wonder Mo would even contemplate leaving us!! F**k sake!!!

What more does the man have to do?

Personally rebuild the Pyramids!!

Anyone saying Salah is overrated is an absolute woollyback, armchair supporting dickhead.

What more does the man have to do?

Leave, to get us the funds for Mbappe or Haaland, else get more involved into pressing and tackling. Salah plays almost contactless, he's soft. We need another Jota-type-of-player. Also I ensure you if Salah never came to LFC we'd still have had all these goals because someone else would have netted - it's the system of Jürgen, it was the same when Jürgen worked at Dortmund and Mainz: players looked better than they actually were.

You can b*tch about it as you want: that's my opinion and if it was the decision: Mbappe vs. Salah, I bet almost all of you Salah apologists would run over to my side and take Mbappe over Salah. Am I right?