In response to losing two leaders James Milner and Jordan Henderson this summer, Jurgen Klopp has identified Mohamed Salah as one of the players in Liverpool’s new leadership group.
The two players stated above have always been relied upon by Liverpool when times are tough, but with former captain Henderson now living in Saudi Arabia and Milner joining Brighton, Klopp has had to look to other experienced players in his locker room.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is the vice-captain and Virgil van Dijk is the new captain, but Salah’s presence in the new five-man senior leadership group has some people scratching their heads. Not because the Egyptian is less competent, but rather because Klopp himself had expressed concerns about wearing the number 11 jersey.
When all four of Van Dijk, Alisson, Henderson, and Robertson were absent for a Champions League match against Midtjylland in 2020, Klopp chose to select Alexander-Arnold as captain instead of Salah. The forward expressed his displeasure with the choice in public, and it did not sit well with him.
“Honestly, I was very disappointed,” Salah told Diario AS. “I was expecting to be the captain. But it’s a manager’s decision, so I accept it.” At the time, the comments sparked speculation touting the Egypt international with the Anfield exit.
After some time, Klopp addressed the issue, saying: “I was captain for a significant portion of my career, and what a heck of a job it is because there are not many advantages you receive, just a lot of effort with all the things around, I didn’t feel or do feel the value of being captain.
“Yes, Hendo is our captain, and that is essential, but he only served as captain for one game. Because everything in this world right now is a massive story, I had no idea how significant that could be to gamers. I had no idea Trent had such a significant narrative to tell. The players’ committee, which consists of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Van Dijk, and Gini Wijnaldum, is mandated in this situation.
“So I didn’t make things that complicated, I just gave Trent the armband,” the Reds manager continued. It wasn’t a problem for me because I talked to Mo about it after the game and clarified it when I realized it hadn’t gone as planned when he repeated it in the interview.
“I didn’t do it on purpose; I just did what I did,” I said to the man who expressed disappointment. If I made a mistake, it was assuming that Divock Origi was the captain when he wasn’t.
Three years later, when describing why Salah was chosen as one of the five senior figures, Klopp praised the potential of Salah’s leadership abilities. The German did, however, emphasise that his number 11 still has a different job to do.
On August 12, the Premier League season will begin. You can now take advantage of a discounted offer to join up for 18 months, which will allow you to watch every Premier League game as it happens throughout the 2023–2024 season.
“Mo, Egypt’s captain, is one of this team’s all-time greatest players. We all gain from the fact that strikers are unique and need to be such. Therefore, he serves as a good example for the team, and Mo should be the one who ‘leads the line’, is the first to press, and initiates all of these actions on the pitch, he said, according to the club website.
After gushing over Salah’s impact off the pitch, Klopp once more embraced the idea that, despite all of his advantages, the former Basel and Chelsea star is not nearly ready to be the team’s starting captain.
“I think for all the jobs a Liverpool captain has to perform, I think the first three fit them better, and then the other two can be who they are and always have been and can be themselves,” the Liverpool manager continued.