1 day ago
5
Andy Robertson has shared Mohamed Salah's message to the Liverpool team after he was excluded from the squad for Tuesday's Champions League triumph over Inter Milan.
Salah caused a stir following last weekend's 3-3 draw with Leeds when he voiced his discontent toward Arne Slot and the club, having been benched for the third game in a row. In light of his fiery remarks, the Reds decided to leave the Egyptian star out of their party for their San Siro encounter.
With the 33-year-old's future at Anfield now uncertain, it remains to be seen whether a compromise can be reached that would see Salah back in action for next weekend's match against Brighton.
Speaking to CBS after the win over Inter, Robertson disclosed that he had spoken to the forward about his comments and expressed his hope for a peaceful resolution. "Yes, of course I have (spoken to him)," the Scotland captain said.
"He was obviously in yesterday (Monday), he was in training. The decision was made for him not to travel. A lot has been said about it externally, obviously internally, of course, it has. It’s a situation that now needs to be resolved between Mo and the club.
"You’ve seen how together the changing room is in terms of the result we had. Mo is a fantastic player. He signed the same window as me; I’ve played with him for eight and a half years. I consider him as pretty much my family, I’ve spent probably more time with him than I have my own family over the last eight and a half years!
“I’ve played with him for so long, and I’d like to continue playing with him - that’s what I want from it. Obviously, we’ll see what happens over the next couple of weeks. Firstly, he would probably want the season to have gone better for the club and for him. He puts a huge amount of pressure on himself to perform all the time.
“Last season, he took it to a whole new level in terms of, at times, he carried this whole team forward to go and achieve amazing things. I think we’ve all been below the standards of last season, Mo included. And he’ll be first to admit that.
“And then obviously finds himself out of the team, which is probably a bit of a unique situation for him. It’s obviously something that he’s not used to experiencing. But he was positive yesterday (Monday) in terms of wishing us all well, sending us on our way.
“I’m sure he would like to be involved. But the support for the lads was still there. As a teammate, that’s all you can ask.”
Meanwhile, Robertson also praised Slot when asked how the Liverpool head coach had been handling the situation. "It’s a unique situation for all of us," he added. "I think the manager, from the start, has always just focused on football.
“He’s focused on the game ahead. We had a massive game tonight, and I think him and his staff were that focused on that, to try and set us up and try and get us a result because we know how important that is.
"I think he set us up well; I thought we looked good on the counter-attack. We kept a clean sheet, which was hugely positive... We were all focused on the result.
“The outside noise is always a lot louder, but there are so many games coming up, we can’t think about anything else. We’re footballers at the end of the day, and whatever else happens will get sorted off the pitch.”
English (US) ·