'Salah Delivers Flawless Response, Yet Retaining Him Isn't Liverpool's Top Priority'

[CharlieH]

 

Liverpool got the response they wanted from Mohamed Salah in their win over Tottenham. My only disappointment is that his performance came a couple of weeks too late.

I’m not suggesting Salah hasn’t been on top form because of an attitude problem, because I think it is a physical issue that has held him back in recent weeks.

But sometimes a row is as good as a rest when it comes to galvanising a player, and I am not surprised he followed last week’s touchline dispute with Jurgen Klopp with the kind of display we saw against Spurs.

I saw something similar happen with other players so many times during my career and, whenever and whoever it came from, the ability to react to criticism like that in the right way was very important for me personally as well.

A great example of that was on what was only my second start for Liverpool, against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1998. Karl-Heinz Riedle got an injury on the day of the game, so I came in and played behind Michael Owen in a kind of number 10 role.

I’d only just turned 21 and I was very nervous. I lost my first couple of balls with some poor touches and Paul Ince, who was our captain, absolutely annihilated me.

In my head, my natural response was to think ‘I’ll show you’. I ended up being man of the match in a 1-1 draw after playing a lot of the game on my own up front because Owen got sent off.

 

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