Mohamed Salah chooses his words carefully - Liverpool’s new power structure has a major decision

By declining to speak to the media at West Ham United on Saturday lunchtime, Mohamed Salah in fact spoke volumes. And for a player who has chosen to go on the record in mixed zones - the area where journalists can ask players to stop for interviews - just twice during his near seven-year stint at the Reds, his one-line rejection to the assembled press at the London Stadium was in fact the most he has said in years.

The players are under no obligation to stop and chat after games outside of rights holders like Sky Sports and TNT Sport and they often do so out of courtesy to those reporters who they are familiar with. As a result, Salah, as is his right, has opted more often than not to politely decline the requests that arrive every week without fail. It's become something of a running joke between the player and the journalists who ask out of habit knowing full well the friendly rejection is always incoming.

In 2018, Salah made good on a promise to speak after he reached the 40-goal mark in his debut campaign before he also kept to his words a year later when Liverpool won the Champions League in Madrid. A promise, half given in jest it must be stressed, to chat 'when' the Reds completed a quadruple was also given as he left Wembley as an FA Cup winner in May 2022.

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Since then, Salah - aside from any sit-down interview pre-arranged through either the club or his agent, the Colombian lawyer Ramy Abbas - has avoided going on the record without duress. The Egypt captain is acutely aware of his standing within the game as one of its