R.E.S.P.E.C.T. It needs spelling out to some people.
The desire to pile on Mohamed Salah simply because the Liverpool legend is out of form, and failed to square the ball to Florian Wirtz against Manchester United and Eintracht Frankfurt, needs to be resisted. It is possible to debate Salah’s place in Liverpool’s starting XI, even argue cogently for his omission, without trashing the Egyptian King’s legacy. Salah deserves more respect.
Wirtz’s creative influence against Eintracht in particular, especially in the second half when he delivered two assists, can be talked up without stamping down on Salah. Nothing lasts forever in football, of course. Salah is 33, he cannot take his place for granted, and the team’s creative focus revolves more around the 22-year-old Wirtz. It’s why Liverpool paid Bayer Leverkusen £116 million ($154.9 million).
The image of Salah going it alone, and failing, shimmered with symbolism. Wirtz was in the ideal place to drag the team back level against United on Sunday. Instead, Salah skewed his shot into the Kop. In Frankfurt, Wirtz again found a yard of space to offer a very obvious passing option for Salah. Instead, he shot meekly at Michael Zetterer.
Yet that failure to pass may, in time, come to represent the moment when actually the baton of the Liverpool orchestra passed from Salah to Wirtz. That is now the broader debate.
