Mohamed Salah has taken many column inches and minutes of airtime in the wake of his contract remarks, and Arne Slot was pulled into reacting to Jamie Carragher’s response.
The former Liverpool centre-back branded Salah “selfish” for purposefully detracting from “the story” that should hold all the focus for Liverpool this week.
Carragher said: “If he continues to put comments out, or his agent keeps putting cryptic tweets out, that’s selfish. That’s thinking about themselves and not the football club.”
He did, however, go on to stress that Salah is “in the top five players to ever play for Liverpool,” and that is what Slot opted to focus on when asked about Carragher’s stance on the situation.
Speaking in his pre-Real Madrid press conference, Slot stressed: “I focused a bit more on what else he (Carra) said. He said he was one of the five best players Liverpool ever had.
“I completely agree with him, which is not an easy thing because we had so many great players at this club.
“I don’t think it distracts Mo at all, maybe it brings the best out of him if you look at his performances until now.
“Like I’ve said a few times, my main focus is the next game. I talk to Mo about what I expect from him, like I do with all the other players. He’s in a good place at the moment.
“I said before, I’m not distracted at all by his comments, and I don’t feel his teammates do. It’s nice that we have a story in the media so you guys have some work as well!”
As Slot is the club’s only mouthpiece, he handled the situation with the same poise that he has conducted himself with throughout his Liverpool tenure so far.
Salah isn’t ‘distracted at all’
Addressing the matter further, Slot added: “The only thing I can say is, if I look at my lineups, Mo is more in than out! That quote I can give you.
“Definitely, we want his numbers to be where they are at the moment because those are the numbers Mo always has had and still has.
“I don’t think he’s distracted at all. I haven’t seen that after the United game where he had comments and haven’t seen it after a post [on Instagram], he just kept on scoring.
“I didn’t see anything today. He’s fully focused on the game tomorrow and I think these kinds of things are in the media and all the fans talk about it, which is completely normal.
? Arne Slot reacts to Jamie Carragher's recent comments about Mo Salah and his post-Southampton mixed zone interview… pic.twitter.com/Lh4bz5vTcs
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“But if you would have been at the AXA today, I don’t think any player talked about it – at least not when I was there.
“Players are also focused on the short-term and that’s Madrid and City, and the time Mo’s contract is extended players don’t look at it that way.
“I don’t think there’s any distraction for him, the players and definitely not for me.”
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