It’s a sight we’ve all grown accustomed to, Mo Salah being continually fouled but a whistle failing to come, but Liverpool’s No. 11 is not one for “rolling around” or “whining”.
With the positions he finds himself in and the danger he poses to the opposition, Salah is never awarded nearly as many free-kicks as one would imagine he should.
Liverpool fans have seen it, he’s been dragged back, clipped or even placed in a headlock without so much as a second look from referees all too often, a source of frustration for many.
In fact, in the 2021/22 Premier League season, Salah was awarded only 30 fouls across his 35 appearances – that’s an average of 0.86 fouls per game.
By comparison, Crystal Palace‘s Wilfried Zaha ended the season with the most fouls with 124.
But whether the whistle has been blown or not, Salah is not one for exaggerating if he has not been hurt, as the art of the game is to have “your feet on the pitch,” not flailing around on the ground.
“If I get fouled, I get up and don’t complain against the referee,” Salah told France Football in a recent interview.
“To play good football you have to have your feet on the pitch, that’s all! There’s no point in rolling around on the ground and whining.”
It’s a mentality that serves Salah well, whether having been awarded a foul or not as it also lends to the psychology of not serving up a weakness to the opposition.
Salah remaining steadfast and doing his talking with his feet firmly on the ground has certainly served him well, his 31 goals and 15 assists in 2021/22 the latest reminder of that.
But it would certainly be welcome for Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool to see the whistle blown in favour of the Egyptian with greater frequency.
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