Following Mohamed Salah’s explosive social media statement demanding a return to Jurgen Klopp-style “heavy metal football,” club legend Steve Nicol has delivered a blistering reality check to the Egyptian forward.
Liverpool’s increasingly turbulent season has thrown up yet another internal crisis ahead of their critical final-day showdown against Brentford on Sunday.
Liverpool have one final game of the season this weekend as they host Brentford at Anfield. The Reds are still in the hunt for Champions League football, though if Bournemouth lose to Manchester City on Tuesday evening, they will confirm their place in the competition next season.
For some Kopites, this satisfies them following a horrible campaign, having lost 12 Premier League matches, though one person who isn’t pleased is Mohamed Salah.
The 33-year-old made sure every Reds supporter had their eyes glued to social media when he released a statement saying it’s the ‘bare minimum’ for the club to just qualify for the Champions League, as a team with the stature the Merseyside outfit have should always be competing at the top of the table.
He also took a swing at Arne Slot, saying the team must go back to the way they did under Jurgen Klopp and his ‘heavy metal football’.
Former Liverpool legend, Steve Nicol, spoke on ESPN about the Egyptians comments regarding the club, and he was far from pleased with what he had to say, especially when his final game wearing that famous shirt takes place on Sunday. The Scotsman can’t understand why he would do this at this stage in his career.
He said, “He’s done nothing but give his heart and soul and everything to Liverpool, and Liverpool fans and Liverpool Football Club. To do this now, right at the end of his time at Liverpool, I think, is just complete and utter madness, and I don’t understand.
“Everybody is looking forward to saying goodbye to Mohamed Salah, so why do you want to go ahead and tarnish it? Because there will be some who will be looking at this and going ‘hold on a second, why are you criticising our club?”
The words from the Egyptian King have certainly split opinion, though it seems he has a few more on his side today than he did back in December when he spoke with the media about the issues he and the Dutch head coach were dealing with.
Some fans argue that what he is doing isn’t right and that disrespecting the boss isn’t something a Reds player should ever consider, while others believe he is doing what is needed, as the results can’t continue like this, with Anfield’s noise and support draining week after week.
Compared to the year before, the coach, the players and the fans have lost the magic they were able to create either at home or on the road.
A similar situation took place under Jurgen Klopp in 2022/23; however, by the end of the season, there was a noticeable change in the performances, which allowed the fans to get behind them ahead of the new season. The same can’t be said this time around, as they wander into the mist.
Nicol argues that there have been so many fantastic players who have represented the club that have faced similar situations to the modern-day issues within the team that didn’t come out and speak about the poor direction they were heading in.
“At Liverpool, there have been so many stars who have finished their time there and haven’t been regular starters, have gone through similar things this guy has gone through, and how many of them do you remember coming out and criticising the club or the manager or anybody else, cause you don’t do it, it’s called class.
“He has shown in that statement, he doesn’t have the class of his former veterans at Liverpool, who showed absolute class.”
Built-up anger and hatred are being fuelled by the direction the team is currently going, with some directing anger at Salah and others at those criticising the 33-year-old. Liverpool are certainly going through a rough period, with no official end in sight, with the Egyptians statement hoping they can go back to how things once were.
Salah was a cornerstone for the period following one of their greatest legends in Steven Gerrard. It may feel like he doesn’t want players to shoulder the burden when he departs, as several others did when the scouser leaves, and rather remain one of the best in the country than start from the beginning all over again.
ReadLiverpoolfc Verdict
Steve Nicol has hit the nail on the head here, even if his words make for incredibly uncomfortable reading for a lot of Liverpool supporters. There is no denying that Mohamed Salah is an absolute immortal of this football club a modern-day king who helped drag Liverpool back to the absolute summit of world football. But this statement, coming days before he walks out onto the Anfield turf for the final time, is an absolute disaster class in timing.
For months, Kopites have been preparing an emotional, tear-filled send-off for a man who has given his heart and soul to the shirt. Instead of a celebration of 11 years of greatness, Sunday’s match against Brentford now carries an unwanted, toxic cloud of internal politics.
By publicly undermining Arne Slot and demanding a return to “heavy metal football,” Salah hasn’t just criticized the manager—he has actively fractured the fanbase at a moment when everyone should be united in saying goodbye.
Salah’s frustration with Liverpool’s mid-table regression and tactical identity crisis is completely justified; 12 Premier League defeats in a single season is an embarrassment for a club of this stature.
However, there is a time and a place to air those grievances. Doing it on social media to force the board’s hand looks vindictive rather than constructive.
Greats like Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, and Steven Gerrard all endured incredibly difficult, transitional final seasons at Anfield, yet they departed with their dignity and respect for the institution entirely intact. By contrast, Salah’s public outburst feels petulant.
He may think he is protecting the club’s standards for the future, but in reality, he has shown a distinct lack of the “class” Nicol speaks of. It is a deeply sad, chaotic way for one of Anfield’s greatest-ever love stories to end.
