Liverpool struggled again in the dying seconds against Leeds United in another painful blow for the Championship side. Ibrahima Konate’s error was the source of the weekend’s problems, but their season has been derailed by different problems with different players in each game.
The real shocker was Mo Salah’s outburst, which was a rude entitlement for a professional. While that sounds harsh for a talented player, most others in the game would not respect his comments.
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No, you have no right to compete based on what you’ve done in the past, no matter how glorious. When picking a team, what matters is what you are currently doing and what you can add in the future. Any other perspective from the coach can lead to hatred, mutiny, dissatisfaction and the destruction of team spirit.
No player should be bigger than the club, it has to be. Football has to be a pure meritocracy, anything else simply doesn’t work at an elite level. His teammates know it and so does his club. Deep down, even his most loyal fans understand, and sadly Mo should be aware of this too.
As for throwing him under the bus – weren’t nearly all of the star players, including the new ones, thrown under the bus when the head coach tried to stem the current malaise? No one else showed the same incendiary reaction.
It would be nice if the fire, passion and fury in his comments could be matched by the same spirit on the pitch this season. If they do, he’ll be back where he was, at the top of the scoring charts and ingrained in our hearts as a beloved, world-class footballer.
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