DON T CHUCKLE Sam Ellard SLAMS Mo Salah s ANTICS after Substitution against Forest

Mo Salah's coming off, which is interesting. Little wry smile there from Mo Salah as he comes off. I don't think he's got any arguments, to be fair. I mean, I know he had... To be honest, I think Slott could take them all off, couldn't he? But like, yeah, I don't think he's been particularly great again, Salah. No, he struggled. They've all struggled. They've been an absolutely awful, really, ill game. Now, Salah and Gappo are coming off for Chiesa and N'Gomba. They both look absolutely fuming to be substituted. They have absolutely no arguments. And I like the change. This is a change, I think, a couple of weeks ago that Slott wouldn't make. He just kept Salah and Gappo on for the whole game. But like, you know, N'Gomba in particular is a really exciting young prospect. Every time he gets somewhere, he wants to be direct. He wants to get at the defenders. And we need that. Everything in moments is so potential. I mean, Salah there, you know, he's almost sort of, you know, like... I don't know if he's... I don't know what he's smiling at. He can have absolutely no complaints of being substituted. It was another game where the game went by him and he was nowhere near enough. So don't chuckle almost, you know, as if it's a joke that you've been substituted. It's not. Salah's not happy at all. His performance has been pathetic again. It's been absolutely awful again. Everyone could have been hooked and had no complaints. But Salah and Gappo, I mean, Cody Gappo, you know what? This season, I don't know how he's played so much football this season. Every Liverpool fan says that. He's been absolutely... He's painful to watch. He does the same thing, cutting in on that left foot, and he gets absolutely nowhere. Nowhere. What did you make CJ of, you know, most out of this season? It just, you know, I've always hoped that, you know, when he struggled at the beginning part, he was going to find his rhythm, he was going to find his best form. It just looks like this season is not happening for him. It's a weird one because there is a bit of a tax you have to give every player at Liverpool because everybody's kind of struggling. I think, you know, the recruitment was good in terms of names, but in terms of it all bedding in, it's not quite been there. For Mo Salah, at the end of the day, someone like him, you know, what he did last season, what he's been doing in the seasons, you're going to live or die by your assisting. It's just not quite happening for Salah. Like me and you were speaking off air. I know you've got Izak who's injured. I know you've got Hugo Kitiki. But I think Salah's changed. I don't think... I think he's lost that pace, that dynamism. I don't know why you don't put him up front in games and situations like this. It looked like a no-brainer to give him a new deal. Of course, giving him one. It looks like he's on a beach and he's checked out. I don't know, man. It looks like he probably just needs to move on from Liverpool, man. But he's not been as good as he normally is. Salah is my favourite Liverpool player of the past decade by a mile at this club. And probably only Steven Gerrard tops him as my favourite player. Watching this Mo Salah this season has been... It's been sad to watch because you've got a guy that six months ago, eight months ago, put up one of the great Premier League seasons of all times in terms of numbers, consistency. And I understand that when players get a little bit older, you have a drop-off. Maybe you lose a little bit of pace. You know, the touch goes. I can't remember off the top of my head a player being there on a world-class level. Yeah. So then the following season, dropping off a cliff completely. His confidence has been shot as well. It almost upsets me how woeful he's been this season. It can. It can happen. Like, I mean, yeah, arguably this is... No one would have foreseen the difference over the course of the summer. Give him what he wants. That's typically what happens. Obviously, you look at the age and the profile of it. I just think when players like are super pacey and rely on that type of burst of energy. Plus, I think that nobody really wants to admit, maybe from a Liverpool perspective, how much Trent was so key into helping. That relationship on that round. Again, not comparing the two, because I think that obviously Salah is a level above someone like Heung-Min Son. But you saw with Son the deterioration of him probably over the course of an 18-month season. Both very similar in the way that they play. Both very similar in terms of being very explosive and having pace and finishing and having that split-second decision-making. I watched it happen with Son and I got loads of stick for it, calling it quite early. I could see the difference in him. And I think that probably the same with Salah. Like, you're seeing that deterioration, unfortunately, just very, very quickly. And one of the boys actually said to me last week, because obviously he played Brighton last weekend, was it two assists he got last weekend? And I'd made a comment on Thursday saying, I think he's done in terms of the prep. And then I got a text Sunday morning, be like, oh, did you watch him last night? I'm like, yeah, but he can have a good game. I'm not saying he's short-sighted, but you have to look at it over the course of the whole season. Salah isn't delivering on the level that he needs to deliver for Liverpool Football Club. Liverpool don't have, at the moment, you don't have the capacity to have passengers. And in all honesty, whether or not you've given him that contract, in the summer, you've got to try and get some money for him. Oh, he'll go in the summer. You've got to start moving on from the old guard. And I think that with Liverpool fans in particular, you're very protective of your players. And I understand that. And I think that's a lovely quality, but sometimes you've got to see past the rose-tinted glass and just see it for what it is. He's at that age now where he's not good enough to... I'm not saying good enough, because I know that'll come back to bite me, but what I'm saying is good enough of the level that he was at in terms of the bar he set for himself. I think, Gabby, I think giving him that two-year contract was so important, because it kind of covered for a season like this, if it did happen. Get some money for him. He's got a year left on his deal. And the only team he ever gets linked with is a team in Saudi Arabia. That's perfect for him. From a Liverpool point of view as well, because it's Saudi, maybe a little bidding war you can get, maybe a little bit more money than what you maybe should get for a player who's into his thirties now and his form dropped. And I take all your points, Gabby, on board about Trent leaving not maybe knowing what to do behind Mo Salah to get the best out of him. Lots of players are struggling for form, new players are coming in. All this is true, and he's not the only player that struggled this season. But that still does... There are times when the ball gets played into Mo Salah's... Sometimes just a simple pass is not there as simple. And I hate to see this, because what he's done for the football club is unbelievable in terms of the goals, the assists, winning the trophies. But this, you know, the odd game where you think, is he going to... And just when the optimism builds, it goes back to the beginning. I said the same about Son. And I actually think the best thing that Ange did, because I think other managers would have succumbed to it, is not starting him in that final. It was the right decision to not do that. You know, because we'd seen for... You haven't got time for sentiment. Yeah, we haven't got time for it. And I think that Liverpool don't have time for it if you want to finish in the top four, which you probably will, because everyone else is so poor. But in case it gets down to the wire, you don't have time for it. You really don't. Same way that we didn't have time for it. Like, you're still going to be the captain of the club. You're still going to lift the trophy. It's going to be on you. And you would have done more than Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris, etc. did. But you've got to make a decision on what's best for the football. I remember talking about that before he went to AFCON with you. Yeah, I know. I think the problem at the moment is with Isak being injured and, like, other players not being... He hasn't got loads of options in terms of, like, you know, to play on that right-hand side. Like, you know, Gappo's coming... I don't think he should be playing on the right-hand side. You think he's playing up front? Obviously, you're not going to play up front because you've got Hugo. If Isak is fit, he's obviously going to play there. But I'm not comparing Mohamed Salah to Cristiano Ronaldo, but we all remember Cristiano Ronaldo at Man United. He could do a million stepovers. He kind of adapted his game and really just wanted to come alive in the opponent's box. I see that with Mohamed Salah. I do think his confidence is shot. I think he's a decent shot, mate. Yeah, like, I think that is the option, just because as a neutral, it's painful watching him try and beat his man. He needs to play up front. Chance for Gibbs White! Alisson flaps it across and Gibbs White's shot is blocked. It then comes to Zingare and his shot into the turf just goes wide, CJ. Yeah, like, Forrest would be disappointed they never scored. But genuinely, I just feel like you have to adapt your game. Declining doesn't mean a bad thing. I think Salah should just be in the opposition's box. Watching him trying to take his man on as a neutral is quite painful. He's lost that yard of pace. And it's weird because if you asked me last season about this, like, of course, hindsight's 20-20, but, you know, a year removed, he looks a shadow of his former self. So is it confidence? Is it just because Liverpool are struggling? Is it, is it, what is it? Because when you look at Mohamed Salah, it's well known he looks after himself. He, he, he, his nutrition, all of that's amazing. Is he just naturally declining? And I guess for Liverpool, you have to be looking at that right-hand side for a long-term replacement now. But I think he should be going up front, man. Lee, how do you see it? Is it, is it, is it just, you know, normal and natural for a player who's been, you know, at the top? That's a good defensive clearance from Joe Gomez. Nottingham Forest, by the way, have got a corner. Is it, is it just normal and natural that for a player to get into his third season, to have been so good for such a long period of time, him to have a, a drop-off or decline? It's probably a combination of the three, isn't it? Everything, yeah. There's the, there's the age. There's the, whatever's going on between him and, and a slot. That as well. And there's the fact that, you know, maybe naturally, you know, just, just dropped off a little bit. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, it could have, it seems a big drop-off. It does, yeah, yeah. It does seem a big drop-off, though, doesn't it? Massive drop-off. I mean, boxers get old overnight, they say, but you don't see that with football generally, do you? But I think that's a really good shout. Stick him up front and see how he gets on. Well, you mentioned that the pace has gone that way. You don't see him be a man anymore. The finishing won't be gone. I bet in training, he's, he's knocking it out of him. Yeah, yeah. Because there's got to be a reason Slott is still starting him. Like, in training, it's got to be the same thing. But for me, put him up front. Because one thing Salah's always had, he scores a lot of great goals, you know. We look through his catalogue, he's crazy. But there's a lot of instinctive finishes, just tappings. And you can get something out of Salah in that regard. Especially when you're fighting for top four and you want to solidify that position. And obviously goals mean games, innit? So I think that's an option. Especially with Notizac. And like a TK, isn't prolific. Yeah, exactly. And the burden's on his shoulders.