TALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN

Wheels fall off Liverpool’s title tilt as star forward squabbles with Klopp

JURGEN KLOPP’S final days as Liverpool manager are in danger of unravelling in acrimony after a public spat with talisman Mohamed Salah erupted in yesterday’s 2-2 draw at West Ham.

Salah was left on the bench by Klopp after a woeful run of form in recent matches. The Egyptian ripped into his manager amid an angry touchline exchange when he was thrown into the action on 79 minutes.

Klopp refused to be drawn on what

Salah screamed at him, with the forward sending a cryptic message to reporters after the match as he said: “If

I speak today, there will be fire.”

Salah is expected to follow Klopp out the Anfield exit door this summer, with a mega-money move to the Saudi Pro League set to be sealed in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Liverpool are close to confirming the appointment of Dutchman Arne Slot (inset) as Klopp’s successor. Anfield chiefs agreed on a compensation package with Feyenoord on Friday – and Reds goal-scoring great John Aldridge suggests the appointment is a gamble.

“Whenever you have a change of manager, it always brings risk,” said former Ireland striker Aldridge. “You look at what happened at Manchester United when Alex Ferguson left and they have still not recovered from it over a decade later.”

‘If I speak today there will be fire’

THE spotlight has been shone on referees once again in recent days after Nottingham Forest’s incredible tweet sparked a storm last Sunday.

Their claim that VAR official Stuart Attwell was a Luton fan and the clear accusation that his decisions in Forest’s defeat against Everton were influenced by that sparked an almighty storm.

A couple of those penalty calls were hard to explain and while most ex-players have dismissed Forest’s claims of bias as nonsense, it does raise an interesting question.

I’m not saying match officials are corrupt for a second, but if I was doing the VAR for a game that affects Liverpool and a 50/50 decision needs to be made, I would give a decision that helps my team.

You give the decisions you have to give, but the 50/50 calls can be interpreted any way they want, and that has been going on since the year dot.

I remember speaking to former referees’ chief Neil Midgley many years ago and I told him then that I felt decisions were made depending on what team the official supported.

Neil admitted that might be possible at the time and that if this came out, there would be no referees left.

Referees must like football to get involved in it and they all supported teams when they were growing up, so we need a system that is more proactive in making sure officials are not put in a position where their allegiances can impact a decision.

If a Manchester club are playing a massive match against a team from Liverpool or London, don’t put a Manchester-born referee in charge (as we have seen in recent years), even if he is an Accrington Stanley, Boreham Wood or Altrincham fan.

There is a good chance his brother, his best mate or his kids are United or City fans and that could affect his judgment on a 50/50 call.

Referees need to declare on their file who they support, or supported when they were kids, and the decisions on what matches they do can be made around that.

Hopefully the debate around this topic over the last few days will bring about that change.

‘A lot of the players seem to have lost focus. Maybe that has to do with the manager leaving’

JURGEN KLOPP won’t be getting his dream send-off as Liverpool manager and I’m sure he would change a few things if he had his time again.

We were all shocked when Klopp announced back in January that he would be leaving the club at the end of the season. In hindsight, that announcement has backfired.

It all looked good in the weeks after the news of his exit broke as Liverpool went on a decent run. Everyone seemed galvanised by the idea of giving him the perfect send-off, and it looked like it might have a positive impact.

When they won February’s Carabao Cup final against Chelsea with a team loaded with kids, it felt like anything was possible in the final weeks of the season.

In the end, it has all come crashing down. Yesterday’s draw at West Ham and Wednesday’s horrible defeat to Everton killed off their Premier League title hopes.

OVER

To be honest, I felt the title challenge was over after they lost at home to Crystal Palace, but the Everton display and defeat ended all hope, and you start to look back and wonder if things could have been handled differently.

For whatever reason, a lot of the players seem to have lost their focus. Maybe that has something to do with the manager leaving.

When you look at the games they have lost, they had more than enough chances to turn those results around, but the forwards have all lost their way badly.

How many times have I said in this column that Liverpool’s strikers need to develop a killer instinct in front of goal?

Instead, they appear addicted to firing shots at the opposition goalkeeper.

We saw it in the two matches against Manchester United at Old Trafford in recent weeks and also against Crystal Palace and Everton, with chances to score passing them by. You just can’t afford to do it at the highest level. You’ve got to take your chances.

Darwin Nunez got hammered by Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports after the Everton game for his miss just before half-time – and it is hard to defend him because he had two-thirds of the goal to aim at and didn’t take the chance.

If that game goes 1-1 just before half-time, everything is different in the second half.

Mo Salah’s head has been in a different place over the last few weeks, maybe because he knows he is off to Saudi Arabia this summer come what may.

Luis Diaz has also been guilty of missing massive chances and the goals that have been conceded have also been very poor.

So, the end result is Liverpool’s season is likely to end with a whimper and it’s a hard one to stomach for the fans because it could have been so different.

I’m sure Klopp will reflect that it would have been better to keep his decision to leave the club under wraps, but news like that can leak out and maybe their hand was forced with the timing of that announcement.

I’m sure the players wanted to end on a high for the manager. In fairness, despite what has happened over the last few weeks, Klopp will still be remembered as one of the great Liverpool managers.

Yet, for a variety of reasons, this season has imploded and Klopp’s farewell at Anfield next month will be a little flat, to say the least.

The title is between Arsenal and Manchester City and as I’ve said all season, I fancy Pep Guardiola’s winning machine to come out on top again at the end.

All credit to Arsenal for keeping things going this deep into the season. They have certainly lasted the pace better than Liverpool, but City will win their remaining five matches and will be champions again. Of that I have no doubt.

To put some perspective on this, if you had offered Liverpool fans a top-three finish in the Premier League and a cup win at the start of this season, they probably would have taken it.

Remember where the team was a year ago. They were struggling to get into the Europa League at one point, so there is no doubt that progress has been made.

What we didn’t throw into the equation last summer is the steps forward made this season may not count for too much, as Klopp will be gone in a few weeks.

Feyenoord boss Arne Slot is coming in. When the news broke in recent days that Liverpool were close to appointing him, we all found ourselves looking up who this guy is.

UNKNOWN

Slot is not a proven winner at the highest level of the game and that means his appointment is a risk, but it will always be a step into the unknown when you are hiring someone to replace a manager as great as Klopp.

What we can say with certainty is that Slot is inheriting a good squad, with some great young players coming through, but he may need to make a few tweaks to get the team winning again.

I’m pretty sure Salah will leave this summer and that will give the new manager a chance to shape the team, with two strikers probably needed to fill the void he will leave behind.

The trouble is, we don’t really know what is coming next with this new manager. That uncertainty is adding to the anguish Liverpool fans are feeling right now, for sure.

As we saw at Manchester United when Alex Ferguson left, it’s very hard to replace a manager of that stature, and Liverpool might be in the same position now.

The fans have to trust Michael Edwards and the decision-makers at Anfield who have decided Slot is the man to do that.

But only time will tell whether he can fill the huge void Klopp will leave behind. It is a big ask. Hopefully, he is the man.