You can feel Salah was wrong to speak to the press in the way he did and still say the reaction has gone miles too far. That is where this whole thing has ended up for me: punditry crossing the line from football chat into something that sounds personal.
It is one thing to analyse a player’s form, attitude or decisions. That comes with the territory at a club like Liverpool. But some of what has been said about Salah lately has felt less like analysis and more like point‑scoring at his expense.
From Football Debate To Personal Digs
The stuff about Salah “abandoning” Trent for eight seasons is a good example. That kind of line ignores everything they have done together on that right side for years. It forgets how often Salah has been breaking records and carrying the attack while Trent has been a huge part of the supply line. You did not hear many people saying Salah was abandoning anyone when he was racking up goals and assists season after season.
Then there is the “Chelsea reject” angle. Technically it is true that Chelsea let him go, but throwing that label around now feels cheap. It wipes away the graft he put in at Basel, Fiorentina and Roma to rebuild his career and arrive at Liverpool as a top forward. People in Italy knew how good he was long before he rocked up at Anfield.
That kind of line plays to a lazy story rather than what actually happened on the pitch. It is the sort of thing you say for effect, not for insight, and it lands badly when you are talking about someone who has delivered at the level Salah has for Liverpool.
“Never Criticised Him”? Come Off It
When a pundit insists they have “never criticised” a player, then gets instantly reminded on air that they said a week earlier his legs had gone, it says a lot. It tells you this is not just about calm analysis. It sounds like someone who has got wrapped up in their own narrative about a player and does not want to climb down from it.
There is also the tone around it all. The bitterness is what really sticks. It comes across like there is a grudge there rather than a cool head looking at a difficult situation and trying to unpack it. That is when fans start switching off what is being said, no matter how valid some individual points might be.
Where Is The Nuance Around Liverpool’s Problems?
What makes it worse is how little nuance there seems to be about the wider Liverpool picture. If you are going to go in that hard on Salah, you have to at least acknowledge the bigger context around the club: decisions from the people running things, the strategy at the top, the way the new structure is bedding in with Hughes, Edwards and Arne Slot.
This season has not just been about one player or one flashpoint interview. It has been about a team in transition, a manager trying to put his stamp on things, and a hierarchy making big calls that will shape the next few years. Reducing all of that down to personal shots at Salah does nothing for the conversation. It just whips up drama instead of helping anyone understand what is really going on.
You can say Salah should have handled things differently. You can say the club should have handled things better too. But if the punditry around Liverpool is going to be worth listening to, it has to move away from personal digs and lazy labels, and back towards proper analysis of everyone involved in the mess, not just the easiest target.
