Mohamed Salah’s Liverpool future continues to hang in the balance but pundit Paul Merson has rushed to the defence of last season’s Premier League leading scorer
Former England star Paul Merson has come to the defence of Mohamed Salah after the Liverpool forward’s ‘thrown under the bus’ comments. Salah was left out of Liverpool’s squad for their Champions League win against Inter Milan in midweek and it remains to be seen whether he leaves Anfield in January.
Player and club will have a forced separation in a few days when Salah heads off to the Africa Cup of Nations. A lot can change between now and when he returns, with Liverpool playing three more league games before the AFCON group stage wraps up.
Liverpool will be forced to find a way to play without Salah in the coming weeks, but they have already been doing so by choice. He hasn’t started any of their last four matches, only coming off the bench in one, and Merson sympathises with the 33-year-old.
“I’m on Mo Salah’s side,” Merson said on Sky Sports. “I think he’s got too much stick. First, people will go ‘Oh, should he have done what he did? Maybe he shouldn’t have. But he’s a human being to start with. He’s a winner. This man’s a top player. I think ‘legend’ is used very loosely in football, I really do, [but] he’s a legend.
“The figures he’s put up on the wing, scoring goals and assists, are off the charts. We will never see that again, in my opinion. All he’s come out and said is he wants to play football. He’s got the hump because he’s not playing. How could you be slaughtered for that?”
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Merson also emphasised Salah’s absence from Arne Slot’s starting XI isn’t by his own choice, adding: “I sat on here at the start of the season, deadline day, there were players who were refusing to play for their clubs, and this lad is getting absolutely slaughtered.
“There’s other players in the team that could have got dropped and he’s probably sitting there thinking ‘Wait a minute, we’re not very good and I’m not playing’… I just think it’s wrong. And Liverpool wouldn’t have won anything if it wasn’t for Mo Salah, in my opinion. You take away Mo Salah’s goals and his assists, I don’t think there’s any trophies in that cabinet for a while.”
Slot was asked about Salah in the aftermath of Liverpool’s win at the San Siro, which came courtesy of a late Dominik Szoboszlai penalty. However, he preferred to focus on a victory which keeps alive the Reds’ hopes of a top-eight finish in the league phase of the Champions League.
“It should be about what we’ve done over here,” the Dutch boss told Prime Video Sport. “I fully understand that on Friday, in the press conference [ahead of a league meeting with Brighton], all the questions will be about Mo.”
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
