Liverpool got the response they wanted from Mohamed Salah in their win over Tottenham. My only disappointment is that his performance came a couple of weeks too late.
I’m not suggesting Salah hasn’t been on top form because of an attitude problem, because I think it is a physical issue that has held him back in recent weeks.
But sometimes a row is as good as a rest when it comes to galvanising a player, and I am not surprised he followed last week’s touchline dispute with Jurgen Klopp with the kind of display we saw against Spurs.
I saw something similar happen with other players so many times during my career and, whenever and whoever it came from, the ability to react to criticism like that in the right way was very important for me personally as well.
A great example of that was on what was only my second start for Liverpool, against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1998.
Karl-Heinz Riedle got an injury on the day of the game, so I came in and played behind Michael Owen in a kind of number 10 role.
I had only just turned 21 and I was very nervous. I lost my first couple of balls with some poor touches and Paul Ince, who was our captain, absolutely annihilated me.
In my head, my natural response was to think “I’ll show you”. I ended up being man of the match in a 1-1 draw after playing a lot of the game on my own up front because Owen got sent off.
Of course, Salah is a superstar, not a young player who has just broken into the team.
I am certainly not putting myself in the same category as him either, but my point is I think all players have a choice to make when they are criticised.
It seemed as if Klopp had a pop at Salah for something when he was about to come on against West Ham last week, then when he argued back the media and even few supporters have jumped on to have their say about how the player was in the wrong.
The best way – the only way, really – to react to something like that is to think “next game, I’ll show you”. Salah certainly did that.
He looked sharp right from the start against Spurs and although not everything came off for him, he hit the woodwork a couple of times and also got his goal.
Maybe he did not even head the ball where he wanted to when he made it 1-0, but he was a constant thorn in Tottenham’s side.
Like I said at the start, it is just a shame that it did not come in time to save Liverpool’s title bid, because they are not going to win the league from here.
Still, the good thing for any Liverpool fans looking ahead to next season and life without Klopp is that Salah looked like a player who was giving his all and trying to prove people wrong.
If he was miserable and unhappy and looking for a way out of the club, you would not have seen a response like that.
