If I Talk, There Will Be Fire – Moh Salah “Rejects Interview”

Salah dropped to the bench on Saturday after he was unable to make an impact in the 2-0 loss to Everton at Goodison Park in midweek.

Liverpool needed to beat West Ham to give themselves a slight hope of winning the Premier League title but they were held to a 2-2 draw at the London Stadium.

The opening half was dire but Jarrod Bowen struck just before half-time as his header made it 1-0. Andy Robertson levelled the game shortly after the restart before an own goal by Alphonse Areola made it 2-1.

In the end, the two sides were made to settle for a draw as Michail Antonio scored an equaliser for the hosts with around ten minutes remaining.

Liverpool are now two points behind Arsenal with three matches remaining and Mikel Arteta’s side also have a game in hand.

Klopp made a triple substitution shortly after Antonio scored and as part of this roll of the dice, Salah was brought on.

But before entering the field, Salah and Klopp were caught having a pitchside argument.

Speaking on the incident, ex-Liverpool striker Peter Crouch said that it “didn’t look good”.

“It didn’t look good, I don’t think it looks good for the club,” Crouch said.

“Mo Salah is a player who has started the majority of games for Liverpool and he will be fuming to be on the bench.

“But no-one likes to see this between a manager and a key player.”

Klopp meanwhile was keen to insist that his issue with Salah was “done” after they “spoke about it in the dressing room”.

“No [I can’t say what was said], but we spoke about it already in the dressing room. That’s done,” Klopp told TNT Sports.

On the title race: “I’m not in the mood to talk about that, to be honest or look at that at all. We had to win here, we knew that, and we didn’t, and now we have a little bit more time between now and the next game. We try to get the boys ready again and we will go again.”

Yet according to Salah, the problem is not solved. Taking to Twitter, The Athletic‘s James Pearce noted post-match that the attacker ‘declined interview requests’ while walking through the mixed zone.

After rejecting interviews, Salah reportedly said: “If I speak today there will be fire.”

Speaking generally about the match, Klopp admitted he was “very disappointed” with his side’s performance.

“Very disappointed, obviously. I think everyone can see that only one team wins the game, and that is us with the chances we created, with the possession we had, with all the things we did. It was a tough one at the end of a four games in 10 days period, but I think the players did really well,” Klopp added.

“We just conceded out of nothing and need a few more chances and kind of scrappy goals in the end to score twice. When we are 2-1 up we could control it, and still as I said in a lot of moments playing really well but the final situation we didn’t take. That has been the story of the last four weeks.”

When asked whether if Liverpool are unlucky that their attackers are out of format the same time, he answered: “It is what it is. You see the games.

“We are together and we go through that together, that is all. The boys want it, they fought hard, gave absolutely everything. For some of them it was definitely too hard today, and yes that’s it.”