Jamie Carragher highlights difference in Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk contract talks
The Reds beat the champions at Anfield before the Sky Sports pundit clarified his issue with the Egyptian forward’s behaviour during contract negotiations
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Your support makes all the difference.Jamie Carragher has highlighted the difference between Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk’s contract talks at Liverpool and why he has a problem with the Egyptian forward.
Salah opted to publicly discuss the situation after inspiring the Reds past Southampton last week, provoking an angry reaction from the Sky Sports pundit.
And after Liverpool eased to a 2-0 win over Manchester City thanks to a Salah goal and assist, extending their advantage over the champions to 11 points.
But with Van Dijk’s deal also due to expire, Carragher outlined why he strongly disagrees with Salah’s strategy during negotiations.
“Salah sees himself as one of those types of players and rightly so,” Carragher said on Sky Sports when discussing the importance of Salah as a difference maker looking for a big extension.
“But Van Dijk is one of those types of players too. All I'm asking for is Salah to not come out after every game when he scores a goal and talk about his situation.
“Van Dijk is in the exact same situation and handled it brilliantly, there's nothing to report now, move on...
“It's about the club, they're always more important than the individual, especially when Liverpool are top of the Premier League.”
And after Liverpool fans sang, ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ at City boss Pep Guardiola, who responded by holding up six fingers in reference to the number of titles he has won with the club, Carragher ruled the Cityzens out of the title race.
“I don’t see there’s any way back for Manchester City now,” Carragher said.
“Sometimes you need to lose so people realise what you’ve done so you don’t take it for granted what you have done. And maybe he’s sending a message to the hierarchy, the people above him and the fans.
“But this season Manchester City will not win the Premier League.”
Former City defender Micah Richards said: “I wouldn’t say it’s the end of an era. It’s a difficult time but they’re going to find a way to get back. Some of the players have let (Guardiola) down today. They’re a shadow of their best.
“I said before he’d be looking for a reaction and he didn’t get that today. In the first half Liverpool could have been three or four up.
“It’s just too easy to play them. Defensively they’re not good enough, in the midfield they’re overrun and up front they’ve got nothing at this moment in time.
“In the previous games you could say they played well and dominated the ball but if I’m being honest Liverpool absolutely battered them. They’re a shadow of the team we’ve witnessed over the Pep era and it’s strange to see.”
PA also contributed to this report
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