Mohamed Salah‘s inability to be given a free-kick is one thing, but fans believe he was denied a blatant penalty against Nottingham Forest.
In truth, Salah was miles short of his best on Tuesday night, seeing one shot cleared off the line but also producing erratic finishing.
The 32-year-old was still heavily involved, though, not least in the second half when he went down in the penalty area.
Fair challenge?pic.twitter.com/w7TtQLHgg7
— Davolaa (@Davolaar) January 14, 2025
Salah’s appeals for a spot-kick were swiftly waved away, however, both by hapless referee Chris Kavanagh and John Brooks on VAR, who has previous with Arne Slot.
On reflection, he was clearly sandwiched in between Elliot Anderson and Neco Williams, being stopped in his tracks at full pace.
These Liverpool fans took to social media to show their dissatisfaction at the incompetence from the officials.
That’s the 2nd game in a row where what looked like to ME a stonewall pen just go brushed under the carpet.
— Karl (@KarlThyer) January 14, 2025
Don't worry, Cootey, we'll take it from here……
— Steven Kelly (@SteKelly198586) January 14, 2025
McManaman trying to gaslight us all into believing it wasn't a clear foul on Salah.
— Sam McGuire (@SamMcGuire90) January 14, 2025
By the way, if those two players bundle Mo Salah over like that outside the box he 10000000% gets a foul. Why wasn't it a penalty? ??????
— Marktomo77 (@Marktomo771) January 14, 2025
And why isn't that a penalty?
Oh right, it's Salah.
— Jimmy Hell (@SeeingRedv2) January 14, 2025
That's a penalty on every other player in the world bar Mo Salah. Strangely enough.
— Kealan (@kealyk3) January 14, 2025
That's a penalty on every other player in the world bar Mo Salah. Strangely enough.
— Kealan (@kealyk3) January 14, 2025
Nah, Mohamed needs another 10 players kicking him, and then the referee will consider it a penalty https://t.co/5Ps5KLgSR7 pic.twitter.com/x3ArqlrF1r
— . (@StanSalah11) January 15, 2025
Seriously now?! What the hell?!
Salah gets this week in, week out and nothings given. Any other player and it’s a foul.
Needs to be more said about this! https://t.co/OVCPnJdVx5
— Jay (@Jayem80) January 15, 2025
Rival supporters will naturally call it bias, but Salah does seem to be refereed differently to everyone else, even his own teammates!
While at the time it didn’t necessarily look like a nailed-on penalty at Forest, for VAR to watch it back and give nothing is baffling.
Salah was clearly taken out by the leg of Anderson, preventing him from getting into a clear goalscoring position, yet play was simply waved on.
At this point, this level of ineptitude is no shock – Kavanagh was awful all evening, for both sides – but Salah must wonder why a blind eye is constantly turned to fouls on him.
Fan Comments