Lost for words

Mo Salah's not struggling to find words, unlike your favourite sports Substacker.

I’ve found it really hard to pick up the inspiration to write in the last few weeks, despite no shortage of stories to draw from. Even sitting down to pen some of the bits that I have posted over the last while, I’ve found myself phoning it in a bit. I’m not sure if this counts as writer’s block, when my goal is to write just a single piece a week, at about a thousand words, on whatever sports story has piqued my interest, but here we are.

I’ve always dealt with a degree of imposter syndrome when it comes to sports writing. I’ve generally always seen myself as a guy writing about sports, rather than a sportswriter. And I think there is a big difference between the two.

And that usually compounds into periods where I struggle to write at all. I look around and see several others capable of saying what I’d like to say, but simply far better, and look on enviously at their terrific output.

But then I log on here and see a couple of hundred of you sports hungry readers waiting for something and it’d be mental of me not to appreciate that. There’s few things more cringey and self-indulgent than a writer complaining about writing. Especially someone who struggles to even categorise themselves as a writer.

So let’s try and overcome that today and take a look around at what’s been happening…

… and OH CHRIST MO SALAH WHAT HAVE YOU DONE…

There is a man who is not short a few words. For anyone suffering from a lack of inspiration, maybe turn to a guy like Mo Salah who had a lot to get off his chest to the first interviewer who caught his gaze in the media tunnel after Saturday’s 3-3 draw with Leeds, and see if that can rekindle something inside of you. I could easily trot out several thousands words on what’s going on with Salah and the club and end up twisting myself in knots on who is in the wrong, how it could possibly be reconciled and where the club is going and still barely scratch the surface.

My plain view is he was wrong to do it in the manner that he did. Liverpool, as is obvious to see, have been truly awful lately. But this manner of complaint and self-sabotage at this juncture is really telling not only on himself, but a lot of his teammates. The crux is Liverpool have been pretty terrible, for various reasons, and much of that is down to Arne Slot and his coaching and decision making. But he has a team leaking goals and a right sided attacker who not only won’t defend, but is unable to do much in the other direction and looks leggy and zapped of confidence.

Salah is also evidently feeling the departure of Trent Alexander-Arnold, whom he had an almost surgical understanding with down the right hand flank which offered him copious amounts of possession and space to attack. Slot’s mish-mashing at right back has totally upset what was until the end of last season, always Liverpool’s most dependable outlet - give it to Trent, give it to Mo, and wait for something to happen.

He’s been an exceptional player for Liverpool, but the option to go nuclear to the media after a string of three games on the bench, three games Liverpool didn’t lose - but, granted, didn’t play particularly well in, either - feels misguided and is inherently egotistical.

It’s firmly placed everything into a club v Mo Salah equation and, as the classic and over bandied cliché reiterates - nobody is bigger than the club.

But this isn’t a great position for the club, either, especially the head coach. Unless he can rapidly turn this form around then the players who have sided with Salah will make that even more known, and some are undoubtedly doing so already. And those who are keeping their toes out of the fire might start questioning this guy, also.

It’s hard to see a way forward for Liverpool. Barring some spectacular reconciliation and return to form happening before next weekend it looks like the club’s future is without Mo Salah. It also, to me right now, looks like it’s more than likely going to be without Slot as well. And the next man up, whoever that is, has a hell of a job on their hands because I simply can’t see a functioning team in this squad, especially one that extracts something out of a stuttering Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and can also maintain Hugo Ekitike’s bright start. Not to mention accounting for some of the significantly poor form of others around the team.

What has irked me during all of this it’s largely been Slot versus the world and the culture of modern football means we never hear from personnel above the manager, namely sporting directors and notorious laptop boffins Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards. These were the guys wheeling and dealing throughout the summer and have spent extraordinary amounts of money on players who seemingly haven’t or can’t click into a system that also benefits a player the club handed a massive new contract to only a few months ago. Is that on them, and if so, why aren’t they fronting up to the media to take some heat off Slot? And if the blame is on their hand-picked head coach who seems incapable of getting a tune out of these well-paid superstars, why are they persisting with him?

The scapegoat, it seems apparent, is Salah. Cut Salah out now, a guy who looks likely to leave regardless in the next 12 months or so, and you open up a spot for someone else and can at least add one more player willing to track back and defend. But in the brief sample size we have so far, we’ve yet to see Wirtz and Isak connect, a very tidy finish against West Ham aside, while Ekitike proved his quality against Leeds with a very decent performance before it all went pear shaped. In the very role Isak is expected to occupy as the most expensive striker in history.

Something doesn’t add up and I’m not sure how dropping Salah alleviates any of it in the short to medium term.

But back to that interview, I mean, everything he’s saying is understandable but the timing, the tone and the message is entirely out of kilter with the situation, which is a player in a poor spell, potentially seeing the writing on the wall, taking his manager and the club to task. Going scorched earth, even if what he said is largely clear, and I’m sure there’s several of his teammates nodding their heads in approval, has helped nothing except accelerate a possible release from the club, where he departs on a desperately sour note.

Salah is all smiles in training this morning where there’s undoubtedly an undercurrent of tension and a coach who has to face media scrutiny ahead of their Champions League match-up with Inter Milan on Tuesday. Reports say Salah won’t be joining them on that trip, and he’ll be off to the African Nations Cup after next weekend’s game with Brighton.

What state of a club he returns to will paint a clear picture of the future - if the mess continues beyond his mid-season sojourn to Morocco, he could be tasked as the potential savior, maybe even under a different coach.

But if Liverpool and Slot somehow turn this all around in his absence, the player and the club who remained loyal to each other for eight unforgettable years will come to an abrupt and sad end of the line.