A number of Liverpool players approve Mohamed Salah’s instagram post
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Image Credits: Imago ImagesIt has been a season of slow collapse at Anfield.The title defence that began with such promise has disintegrated into anxiety, inconsistency and a desperate scramble for Champions League football on the final day.Friday night at Villa Park only made things worse, with Liverpool falling to a 4-2 defeat that left Arne Slot’s side nursing their ninth away loss of the Premier League season.It is a number that tells its own story about how far this club has fallen from the standards it set under Jurgen Klopp.Into that backdrop walked Mohamed Salah, 16 minutes off the bench on his return from a hamstring injury, watching another defeat unfold around him in what turned out to be his final away fixture in a Liverpool shirt.And when the final whistle went, he did not stay quiet.Salah took to Instagram and delivered one of the most pointed statements of his entire Liverpool career.He did not dress it up.He did not soften the edges.“Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve,” he wrote.“I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies.”“That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good.”“It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.”He went further.“Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about. All teams win games.”A line so simple it lands like a verdict.He closed by reaffirming his commitment to Champions League qualification on the final day, calling it “the bare minimum” before signing off with a declaration of love for a club he is leaving but clearly cannot stop caring about.The post landed.And Liverpool’s dressing room made their feelings known.Hugo Ekitike, Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Giovanni Leoni, Wataru Endo and Harvey Elliott all liked the post.Seven current teammates quietly pressing approve on everything their departing legend had just said about the state of their own club.Curtis Jones went a step further.He replied directly to the post with an applause emoji before adding via a post of his own: “Thank you for your continued support in a disappointing season.
It’s way off the standards expected at this football club.”Jones has been similarly unfiltered about Liverpool’s performances this season, and his response to Salah’s post felt less like a comment and more like a co-signature.This is not just social media noise.These are active squad members publicly endorsing a statement that directly criticises the style of play their manager has overseen all season.Since Salah’s explosive post-Leeds interview, in which he claimed he no longer had any relationship with Slot, the tension between the Egyptian and the coaching staff has been an open wound.For his teammates to like the post in such numbers suggests that wound runs deeper than just one player’s frustration.Salah leaves at the end of the season.But the standards he is demanding, early gym sessions, relentless work ethic, an identity built on aggression and intensity, those are the things he wants to outlast him.Liverpool’s next era honours that request is now the most important question at the club.