Salah demands – Mohamed Salah took aim at Liverpool’s current direction after a 4-2 loss to Aston Villa, urging the club to return to “heavy metal attacking football” amid mounting pressure on manager Arne Slot. The forward, set to leave at the end of the campaign, is due to
Liverpool’s season has been wobbling for months. but the message from Mohamed Salah after the 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa on Friday night landed with extra force.. The result left the Reds fifth and still without Champions League qualification for next season. while Slot’s position has come under growing scrutiny after Liverpool have lost 12 of their 37 league matches.
Salah returned from injury as a late substitute against Aston Villa. and on Saturday afternoon he posted a lengthy statement that felt like a public call for a different identity at Anfield.. Writing on social media. he said: “I have witnessed this club go from doubters to believers. and from believers to champions.. It took hard work and I always did everything I could to help the club get there.. Nothing makes me prouder than that.”
He then turned to the state of the team this campaign. adding: “Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve.” Salah’s demand followed quickly: “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.”
The Egyptian. who is set to leave the club at the end of the campaign. insisted the approach could not be optional.. “It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it,” he wrote.. He also pushed back on the idea that occasional wins are enough. saying: “Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about.. All teams win games.”
Salah’s post was not only emotional but tightly linked to his personal timeline at the club.. He added: “Liverpool will always be a club that means a great deal to me and to my family.. I want to see it succeed for long after I have moved on.” He then set out his one-season focus. stating: “As I’ve always said. qualifying to next season’s Champions League is the bare minimum and I will do everything I can to make that happen.”
Slot’s critics will point to the “heavy metal” line. with the Liverpool style under Jurgen Klopp famously built around that aggressive attacking brand during his nine years at the club from 2015 to 2024.. Salah’s post has already drawn visible engagement inside the dressing room, with several Liverpool players liking or commenting.. Curtis Jones added an applause emoji after liking Salah’s message.
The players who either liked or commented included Dominik Szoboszlai. Andy Robertson. Hugo Ekitike. Milos Kerkez. Jeremie Frimpong. Wataru Endo. Giovanni Leoni and Harvey Elliott.. Jones also posted separately: “Thank you for your continued support in a disappointing season.. It’s way off the standards expected at this football club.”
The timing raises sharper questions given the way Salah’s relationship with Slot has appeared to fracture earlier in the year.. Earlier this season. after a 3-3 draw at Leeds in December where he failed to come off the bench. Salah delivered an explosive interview at Elland Road.. He said: “I could not believe I was sitting on the bench for 90 minutes. ” calling it “the third time” and “the first time in my career I think.”
He also claimed: “It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus.. That’s how I feel. ” adding: “Someone wants me to get all the blame.” Salah said the club had “promised me a lot in summer” but that he ended up on the bench. concluding: “Now I’m on bench so I can say they haven’t kept those promises.”
In that interview. Salah said he had used to have “a good relationship (with manager Slot). ” but that “now we don’t have any relationship and I don’t know why. ” and later: “It seems like someone does not want me in the club.” He added plans to be present at Anfield before the African Cup of Nations. saying: “I called my mum and dad and told them to come to the Brighton game.. It doesn’t matter if I play or not.. I’m going to enjoy it.. I’m just going to be at Anfield and say goodbye to the fans before the African Cup of Nations. because I don’t know what is going to happen when I am there.”
He also said: “It’s not acceptable to me to be fair. If I was somewhere else, every club would protect its players,” and insisted, “Now, it’s ‘Throw Mo under the bus because he is a problem in a team’. I don’t think I am a problem.”
Alongside the wider team pressure following Villa, Salah’s latest statement comes during a personal drop-off in output. He won the Premier League’s Player of the Season award in 2024-25 after scoring 29 goals and adding 18 assists, but this time he has netted seven times and set up six goals.
What ties the loudest comments together is the sequence of events: a late-in-the-game appearance against Villa followed by a public post about Liverpool “crumbling to yet another defeat. ” and the insistence that Champions League qualification is the “bare minimum. ” set against a season record of 12 defeats in 37 league matches and an earlier sit-down grievance after he was on the bench for 90 minutes at Leeds.
Salah now has one final chance to play at Anfield next Sunday when Liverpool host Brentford in the final game of the campaign, marking the closing stage of a relationship with the club that has been tested as the season has faltered.
Mohamed Salah Liverpool Arne Slot Aston Villa heavy metal football Champions League qualification Curtis Jones Premier League