Analysing every word of Mohamed Salah’s explosive interview – and were his criticisms justified?
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah gave a rare interview in which he expressed his dismay and anger at his current situation with the club and manager Arne Slot. The Athletic analyses what messages he was trying to land
Tuesday 9 December 2025 18:31, UK
Mohamed Salah’s astonishing interview after has sent shockwaves through the club, and far beyond.
The Egyptian rarely speaks to UK media, but when he does, he tends to want to make a point. That was certainly true on Saturday night, when he addressed reporters in the mixed zone at Elland Road to express his fury at being demoted to the bench for the last three games and revealed his relationship with head coach Arne Slot was broken. Salah’s interview was 1,116 words in total, but what did it all mean?
Q: What were you thinking sat on the bench?
“I couldn’t believe it. It’s a very disappointing result for us as a team because we expected to win a game like that. We scored two goals in the beginning and the game was going in the right direction, but we conceded silly goals, the same as before while I’m playing. I’m not attacking my team-mates because I’m on the bench. We conceded goals like before. We have to keep a clean sheet and win the game.”
Q: What could you not believe?
“That I’m sitting on the bench for 90 minutes! The third time on the bench, I think for the first time in my career. I’m very, very disappointed, to be fair. I have done so much for this club down the years and especially last season. Now I’m sitting on the bench and I don’t know why. “It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame. The club made me a lot of promises in the summer and so far I am in the bench for three games, so I can’t say they keep the promise.”
Analysis: The Athletic’s understanding is that when Salah signed his new Liverpool contract in April, there was a mutual agreement between the club and player that he was good enough to be a part of the future, and also a willingness on his behalf to continue leading by example.
Salah started the remaining seven Premier League games of the 2024-25 season and kept his place for the opening 12 of this campaign. At that point, he was the only player other than Virgil van Dijk to have started every game under Slot.
Perhaps losing his place in two of the first three Champions League games of the campaign angered him more than anyone thought, and played a part in his decision to speak out. Yet on both occasions, Salah was primarily rested to keep him fresh for more important games, while also giving other players minutes. After missing away games at Galatasaray and Eintracht Frankfurt, he started the home games either side, against Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, scoring against Atletico.
His reference to “broken promises” is intriguing. While it may feel unusual for Salah to be on the bench for the last three Premier League games, and not even be called upon in two of those fixtures, it’s hard to imagine he was told explicitly that will never lose his place.
That said, part of his argument does stand up. Why, for example, is Cody Gakpo seemingly deemed undroppable? He’s started 13 of the 15 Premier League games and four of five in the Champions League, yet has at times been equally as ineffective. The situation around out-of-form Ibrahima Konate is slightly different, as there are fewer options to replace him, but still, seeing players constantly making mistakes and keeping their place will no doubt frustrate Salah.
“I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager, and all of a sudden, we don’t have any relationship. I don’t know why, but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.”
Analysis: These words are perhaps the most cutting of the whole interview. For Salah to say that he has no relationship with the head coach will inevitably lead to external assumptions that Slot is, to use the cliched phrase, “losing the dressing room”.
Then again, if Salah feels that he’s been thrown under a bus, how must Slot feel to hear a player he has placed such faith in speak like this? It merely serves to pile more pressure on a head coach who is already under intense scrutiny after a huge collapse in form after last season’s title win.
“This club, I always support it. My kids will always support it. I love the club so much and I will always do. I called my mum yesterday — you guys (the media) didn’t know if I would start or not, but I knew. Yesterday I said to them, come to the Brighton game (on Saturday). It doesn’t matter if I am going to play or not, but I am 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 or not, because I don’t know what is going to happen now. I will be in Anfield to say goodbye to the fans and go to the Africa Cup (AFCON). I don’t know what is going to happen when I am there.”
Analysis: Salah has opened the door here to a possible January exit. The fact that he’s mentioning his mother and heightening the importance of Saturday’s game against Brighton at Anfield will get many supporters thinking this could be his final game for Liverpool.
Not only is he heading off to AFCON, but he’s playing in his final game before the winter transfer window opens, which could offer him a way out of a club he apparently feels so disillusioned with. Salah had multiple opportunities to rule out a move in January, but instead chose to sit on the fence.
Q: What will you do with the situation now?
“It is not acceptable for me. I don’t know why this is happening always to me. I don’t get it. I think if this was somewhere else, every club would protect its player. I don’t know why I’m in this situation now. But how I see it now is like you throw Mo under the bus because he is the problem in the team now. But I don’t think I am the problem. I have done so much for this club. The respect, I want to get. I don’t have to go every day fighting for my position because I earned it. People will say, ‘Ah you’re not bigger…’ I am not bigger than anyone, but I earned my position. It’s football. It is what it is.”
Analysis: Salah’s ego has always been an accepted price of the output he provides through creativity and game-changing moments. It’s true that last season, when he was producing extraordinary numbers — 34 goals coupled with 23 assists — his goals would provide the platform for Liverpool’s title success, but when those goals (and assists) dry up — and they have — his other traits are exposed.
Salah rarely tracks back or covers his right-back, and midfielders therefore have to do his running. He’s not much use at defending set pieces, either, although Liverpool continue to concede goals that way regardless of his absence.
Most players would reluctantly accept losing their place for two or three games on the back of a poor run of form, both individually and collectively, but Salah thinks he is the exception. He also contradicts himself by saying that he’s not bigger than the club, when clearly he thinks he is.
Q: Do you say that the Brighton game could be your last?
“In football, you never know. But I don’t accept this situation. I have done so much for this club.”
Q: Is that what has frustrated you so much?
“Absolutely. Last season.. I’m sorry, with all the respect, I love everyone. I love Haaland, but I am the current top scorer in the Premier League. I won the league in style. It hurts me. What I have done, it hurts. I know the club well. I have been here for many years. Tomorrow, Jamie Carragher is going to criticise me, but that’s fine.”
Analysis: Salah needs to recognise that while results may not have improved dramatically during his absence, Liverpool are now three games unbeaten in his absence. Carragher, the former Liverpool defender-turned-Sky Sports pundit, has not been afraid to criticise Salah if he feels his actions warrant it, yet he has always offered balance in his analysis. After the 4-1 defeat at Anfield by PSV, Carragher said that he didn’t like criticising club legends like Salah and Van Dijk but went on to hit the Egyptian with the most damning of assessments by saying that the attacker’s “legs had gone”.
Q: Is there interest from Saudi Arabia?
“I don’t want to answer that question because the club will take me in a different direction.”
Analysis: What this exactly means is unclear. Salah still believes that he’s one of the best attackers in the world and can compete at the highest level, so he’s in no mood to publicly commit to Saudi Arabia when other options across Europe could be of interest if this situation is not resolved at Liverpool. Yet the interest from Saudi is undeniable — Al Ittihad were prepared to offer £150million for him in the summer of 2023 — and surely only a Saudi club has the financial resources to pay Salah what he is receiving at Liverpool (around £1m a week when all bonuses and add-ons are included).
Q: Situation impossible now to solve? “I cannot say it is impossible, but from what I feel, I have done so much for the club, I love the fans and the club so much, but I don’t know what is going to happen next.”
Q: Doubly frustrating that you didn’t even come on? “Can you answer that? I have been at this club, scoring more than anyone in this generation, since I came to the Premier League, I don’t think anyone has scored more goals and made more assists than me. In the whole Premier League. If I am somewhere else, everybody would go to the media and defend the players. I am the only one in this situation. Can I give an example? It’s silly, but I am sorry. I remember a while ago, Harry Kane was not scoring for 10 games, everyone in the media was like ‘Oh, Harry will score for sure’, when it comes to Mo, everyone is like, ‘He needs to be on the bench’. I am sorry Harry!”
Analysis: The fact that Salah remained on the bench for two of the last three games is baffling. Slot said last season that when his side were looking for a goal, he always expected Salah to be on the pitch, and while the game state of recent outings at West Ham United and Leeds were different, there’s no obvious reason why the most prolific goalscorer in the team had to stay on the bench for the duration of each. It’s not as if he’s been replaced by direct wingers, either, with Dominik Szoboszlai asked to play in a position that perhaps doesn’t fully suit his qualities.
And would it have been so harmful to experiment with Salah down the middle, even if for only a short period, given that he’s scored so many goals throughout his career? Aside from already having Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak, Slot’s thinking is that he wants his centre-forward to work hard and press intently — which Salah doesn’t tend to do — but the counter-argument is that his methods aren’t working anyway right now, so change was needed regardless.
Q: When you say about someone wanting you out, who?
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
Q: The sporting director (Richard Hughes)?
“No, no, don’t put the words in my mouth. From the situation I see that’s it.”
Analysis: The one grenade that Salah chose not to launch was one at Anfield’s non-football hierarchy. While Slot came in for significant criticism, there were no direct barbs aimed at Richard Hughes, the sporting director who took the lead role in negotiations with Ramy Abbas, Salah’s lawyer and close confidant, in the second half of 2024.
Was he biting his tongue, or was this a genuine reflection of his feelings towards Hughes? It’s impossible to say for sure based on this interview, but the fact that Salah refused to clarify who he believes is trying to force him out of Liverpool will ensure this story runs and runs.
Q: Had anyone communicated and explain the situation to you? Have you actually asked for that?
“I did. I did, but I don’t see an explanation. Like I knew yesterday that I was not going to play and that’s it, so take it and swallow it and go home.“
Q: Were you told personally you weren’t going to be playing by Arne?
“Yeah, he told me yesterday and had a meeting with him.”
Q: Did you let your feelings be known then, you were disappointed?
“He knows my feeling. He knows my feeling.”
Q: Do you regret signing that contract?
“Imagine how bad that I have to answer it, honestly. That hurts, even the question hurts. This club, signing for this club, I will never regret it. I thought I’m going to renew here and end my career here, but this is not according to the plan, so I’m not regretting signing for the club for sure.”
Q: You’re one of the greatest players in Liverpool’s history. Can you believe it might end like this?
“Somehow it will end, but the thing in my head is like why it should end this way? Because I am too fit, just five months ago I was just winning every individual award so why should it go this direction? I’m sorry everybody in a team that is not in his form, yet I’m the one who has to defend himself now.”
Q: Now is the next step for you to speak to Arne again?
“No, I don’t think so. We spoke a lot.”
Q: Has the relationship broken down?
“Yeah, there’s no relationship between us. It was a very good relationship and now all of a sudden there is no relationship.”
Q: Has something changed behind the scenes?
“You guys know better than me. I don’t know.”
Analysis: No matter what you think about Salah after this interview — and for Liverpool supporters, it will be mixed — there’s an overriding feeling of sadness that it has come to this. Whether it’s right or wrong, Salah feels disrespected and under-appreciated, particularly by Slot, given he personalises his attack in these questions, and has risked his legacy by speaking out in such a way. It wasn’t so long ago that he was sitting on a throne as the Egyptian King of Anfield, and signing a new deal en route to winning the Premier League title alongside a head coach he respected and admired.
Q: Do you feel let down from the team-mates as well?
“No, no, no, these guys, they know how much I love them. They know how much I support them, even inside before the game, after the game. I’m an experienced player, I’ve been in their position. I always support them, I always give them experience. But no, no, the players they’re not connected to the situation at all. Even they support me so much so there’s just much love between us as players and respect.”
Analysis: By refusing to dig out any team-mates, it only strengthens the feeling of dissatisfaction towards Slot. Salah’s own form has taken a beating this season, partly because he’s lost the on-pitch relationships with players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez, while at times, Szoboszlai has played in different roles.
He will have also watched the new players take time to settle and older team-mates like Konate, Gakpo and Alexis Mac Allister struggle for form, yet never once did he call them out. Instead, his message and thoughts were very clear, and it leaves the club with one key decision to make: will they back Slot or Salah?
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
