Steven Gerrard reacts to Mohamed Salah’s statement on Liverpool’s decline

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Image Credits: Imago ImagesIt takes something significant to make Steven Gerrard genuinely uncomfortable about the club he gave his entire career to.Friday night at Villa Park was that something.A 4-2 defeat that represented Liverpool’s 19th loss across all competitions this season.A performance so devoid of fight, structure and identity that it left pundits and legends alike searching for words strong enough to describe it.And then Mohamed Salah, with one game left before he walks out of Anfield for the last time, picked up his phone and said everything that needed to be said.The backdrop to Salah’s post matters.This is a player who has scored 255 goals in 435 Liverpool appearances.A man who transformed English football for nearly a decade and who, even in a season of collective failure, returned from a hamstring injury to play his part in what has been a desperately disappointing campaign.He rarely speaks out publicly.He does not do social media theatre.Which is precisely why when he does say something, it lands with the weight of a verdict.After the Villa defeat he posted a statement calling Liverpool “crumbling,” describing the loss as “very painful” and demanding the club return to being the “heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear.” He called the attacking identity that made Liverpool feared across Europe something that “cannot be negotiable.”Coming from Salah, those are not throwaway words.They are a considered and damning assessment of where this club has ended up under Arne Slot.Now to Gerrard’s reaction.Speaking on TNT Sports, Liverpool’s greatest ever player did not hold back.“Wow. Listen, that is extremely interesting,” he began.“Mo Salah doesn’t really speak much, and he doesn’t tweet, and he certainly doesn’t tweet like that.”“So I think that he’s sending a message to the outside that things in that Liverpool dressing room are not right.”“The identity’s gone and it’s really hurting him to see it in front of his own eyes.”Gerrard then raised the question that has been on everyone’s mind since the post went live.“Is he speaking off his own back for the sake of everyone else in the dressing room?”“It’s strange, it’s unusual.”It is a question worth sitting with, particularly given that eight of Salah’s teammates subsequently liked or responded to the post, with Curtis Jones going as far as calling the season “way off the standards expected at this football club.”Gerrard went further when addressing the defeat itself.“The performance last night was terrible, it was awful, it was difficult to watch from start to finish and it hurt me watching Liverpool last night.”“I don’t normally say that.”“There was no fight, no passion, no pattern of play, no connection.”“They were nowhere near good enough.”Nineteen defeats.Champions League qualification unconfirmed.A departing legend publicly dismantling the manager’s approach one week before the season ends.Steven Gerrard called it damning.He was being generous.

Mohamed Salah Steven Gerrard