Mohamed Salah’s latest tantrum symbolizes a deeper divide at Liverpool

In a sense, Mohammed SalahThe 2016 season has come full circle. It all started with a display of dissent during a substitution in London, with the Egyptian managing to tear a small bandage into an absurdly high number of pieces when removed at Chelsea. Some eight months later, Salah was angry at being signed by West Ham. Now, some of the context has changed: his latest touchline tantrum in the capital came after a player who had long been untouchable was removed from the bench after perhaps the worst phase of a great player. Liverpool career and by a manager who is leaving.

If Salah’s alliance with Jurgen Klopp, a long-lasting relationship that has benefited both enormously, may be ending with a hint of acrimony, which can be a shame; It certainly felt like a symbolic moment of how Liverpool’s season is suddenly falling apart. Likewise, his August irritation with Chelsea has barely changed. Salah’s displays in the first half of the campaign were brilliant enough to make him look like a contender for player of the season.

Did the latest incident really change anything? The background is still the same: that Salah, like Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold, still has a year left on his contract and that his future will be high on the to-do list of new power brokers Michael Edwards and Richard Hugo. His recent performances raise the question of whether this is just a rare slump or a sign that, after 696 games before his 32nd birthday, he is at the top and accelerating to the other side.

The Saudi Pro-League presents a spectrum: if Liverpool’s Moneyballers can get a repeat of last summer’s £150m offer or something close to it, there would be financial reasons to accept. However, if there was an oddity in Al Ittihad leaving it so late to apply for Salah, then – given his status in the Arab world, as well as his footballing exploits, it might have been more logical if he had been a of the first targets – he didn’t stir to move then.

The expectation now remains at Anfield that Salah will be there next season; That was the assumption last week and a brief dispute caught on camera didn’t change that. Salah’s subsequent words were incendiary. “If I talk there will be fire,” said a man who spent seven years at Anfield saying as little as possible. However, even if there is a rift between Salah and Klopp, the more instructive question is how or if he gets along well with Arne Slot and what the new manager thinks.

There was, however, a shock to see Klopp and Salah fighting, and not just because Darwin Nunez appeared to be trying to separate them. Klopp’s touchline rows tend to be reserved for fourth officials who, it’s safe to say, won’t miss him. His human management of Salah was deft. He has long excelled in setting aside his agent’s social media outbursts, Ramy Abbas. He said he understood the Egyptian’s reaction at Chelsea.

Klopp is generally reluctant to release Salah, apparently rationalizing that the striker’s thirst for goals was more important than possible fatigue from an additional workload. There may be selfishness in Salah, but perhaps it would take a single-minded approach to push him to such unlikely heights.

This didn’t always endear him to his colleagues. Salah’s relations with Sadio Mané were not invariably harmonious, as a 2019 altercation at Burnley showed, but Klopp could usually find ways to explain everything in public. Roberto Firmino, who later said it was easier for Klopp to replace him than for his fellow attackers, recalled that the manager turned to his players and told him to pass if a teammate was in a better position. It was directed at Salah.

But if his primacy meant he was granted preferential treatment, there has been a change in recent weeks. Salah was sent off after an hour against Sheffield United and 67 minutes against Atalanta, both when Liverpool demanded a goal. Based on each game, it was a justified decision. However, a total of 210 goals in seven years meant Salah remained in similar situations in the past.

But his 2024 was troubled. As Klopp noted, Salah was not used to getting injured. Perhaps he was wrong to bring him back as a first-half substitute at Brentford in February, causing the winger to break down again. Perhaps he made a mistake in substituting others and, after Bobby Clark’s injury, he was the fifth player to leave, leaving Salah in charge of the 6-1 rout of Sparta Prague. The German later said it was the only time he had told a player not to defend, but it still meant Salah had to be withdrawn at Old Trafford three days later in the FA Cup tie where the quadruple dream died.

In the end, Klopp and Salah stopped being good for each other. A manager who projected an air of calm amid Saudi concerns last summer seemed more irritated with West Ham. A striker who is used to scoring at will could be furious at the fading light if this is the start of decline. or simply frustrated that his powers have temporarily abandoned him.

Until now, Klopp and Salah have always had additional reasons to keep any frustrations hidden. Now, without a doubt, Liverpool’s Player of the Years Klopp will part ways with the manager. Such scenarios can be explosive: Sir Alex Ferguson ended his time at Manchester United by omitting Wayne Rooney from the bench, let alone from the team. It’s hard to imagine Klopp following Salah’s lead. But while for years there has been an image of unity, there are now cracks in that image.