Thursday 11/December/2025 – 11:58 PM
Former Arsenal star Paul Merson was keen to offer his support to… Mohamed Salah The Liverpool star and captain of the Egyptian national team, after his recent crisis with the club’s management and Dutch coach Arne Slot, on the sidelines of his last statements after the Leeds United match in the 2025-2026 English Premier League “Premier League”.
Statements of the former Arsenal star about Salah
Paul Merson said during radio statements to Sky Sports a short while ago: I am with Mohamed Salah. I think he was subjected to harsh criticism. Perhaps he should not have done what he did, but in the end he is a human being, he is a winner, he is a legend.
The Arsenal legend added: The numbers he achieved, his goals and his assists are fantastic. In my opinion, we will never see anything like him again.
Merson continued: All he did was say he wanted to play football. He is angry because he is not playing. How can he be severely criticized for that?
Paul Merson added: There are other players in the team who could have been excluded. Liverpool would not have won anything without Mohamed Salah. If you removed his goals and assists, there would not have been any titles in the team’s coffers for a while.
Paul Merson continued: I do not think that Salah deserves to play just because he won previous titles, but he is not the only one who performs poorly. Mohamed Salah is capable of scoring from anywhere. He is the best player in his worst situations.
The Arsenal legend continued: Some days he is the best player I have ever seen, and on other days he plays the worst possible game, but that never affects him, as he is always able to appear suddenly.
Paul Merson continued: As a manager, when you face difficulties, do you give up your best player? I think that’s why he was upset, and he came out and was honest.
He revealed: He could have left in January for free, but he chose to stay. He is sitting there at the age of 33 thinking, “I want to play football, I am approaching the end of my career.” He is not playing and he is frustrated.
Paul Merson said: You must remember that Salah played this season with 4 or 5 different full-backs behind him. I don’t think the club took this into account when Trent Alexander-Arnold left. I think they were lazy.
Paul Merson explained that Liverpool thought they could easily compensate for the absence of Alexander-Arnold by using players like Bradley, Soboslai, or Curtis Jones in this position, and that the potential contract with Frimpong would not solve the problem because he is more of an offensive player than a defensive one.
Merson added: When Alexander-Arnold was playing as a right-back, he would receive the ball in the middle of the field and force teams to move towards him because he is the best passer in the league. He could destroy any team, but now, teams are allowing the right-back to receive the ball without pressure, and are focusing instead on doubling oversight of Mohamed Salah.
Merson cited his former teammate, the legend John Barnes, saying: “I played with one of the best England players ever, John Barnes, and yet people used to say that he did not provide anything for the national team, just because the teams were always pressuring him non-stop from two players, and this is exactly what is happening with Salah now.
Merson continued: If Salah does not perform well, Liverpool will not win. Everyone criticizes him, but only a few admit that the main problem is in the performance of the two full-backs playing behind him.
Wazad: I said on the last day of the transfer market that I would not give him a salary of 400,000 pounds per week, because you do not know when his physical strength may decline. His legs may gradually weaken while Liverpool continues to win every week without anyone noticing.
He added: I read a report saying that Liverpool’s defense is suffering due to Mohamed Salah not returning to defensive support, but he was not returning to defense at all, so why do you want him to return? Leave him in attack and give him the ball.
He continued: Because of the poor level of defense, I think that Salah bore most of the blame, and the matter was exaggerated. He is one of the greatest players in the history of the English Premier League, but now he is being talked about as if he is an ordinary player at best.
He pointed out that Salah did his teammates a favor: Salah did a favor for the other players. Now we don’t pay attention to them or their performance. Everyone only talks about Mohamed Salah.
Paul Merson added: The team won a great result over Inter Milan, but before that they failed to beat Leeds and Sunderland. When was the last time Liverpool failed to win against two teams that had recently been promoted to the Premier League? Not to mention two teams in one week!
He added: If they had won 5-0 while he was sitting on the bench, he would have remained silent. But when they fail to win against newly promoted teams, it is natural for him to get angry, especially if his performance against Leeds is not good. We are talking about their most important player.
He concluded by saying: If Mohamed Salah does not return to the team in a way that suits his value and role, it is better for him to leave.
