Egyptian star Mohamed Salah expressed his frustration that his team, Liverpool, did not qualify for the Champions League next season, while Jurgen Klopp, the “Reds” coach, confirmed that his team did not live up to expectations this season.
Manchester United settled the last ticket to qualify for the Champions League by defeating Chelsea 4-1, yesterday, Thursday, which means that “Liver” will finish the season in fifth place and participate in the European League (Europa League) next season.
Addressing the club’s supporters on his Instagram account, Salah said, “We failed you and we failed ourselves.”
Salah added, “We had everything to reach the Champions League next season, but we failed. We are Liverpool and qualifying for this competition is the minimum. I’m sorry but it’s too early to write a motivational or positive post.”
Liverpool had won 7 of their last eight matches and put pressure on Newcastle and Manchester United in the final stages, but that was not enough.
It is the first time that Liverpool has failed to qualify for the main continental competition since Salah came to its ranks from Rome in the summer of 2017, noting that he reached the final 3 times in the last 6 seasons, losing twice to Spanish Real Madrid in 2018 and 2022 respectively, while he was crowned the title in 2019. At the expense of compatriot Tottenham 2-0.
In turn, German coach Jürgen Klopp confirmed that his team did not live up to expectations this season, and confirmed that he had no problem with what Salah mentioned.
And Klopp had already resigned himself to not playing in the Champions League next season, and confirmed that he even believed that reaching fifth place was not possible before the ten consecutive matches in which the team avoided losing and included 7 wins.
Klopp said, “It was a natural description of his situation, of his feelings, and at this moment, immediately after the match, he is right. It is not the immediate moment in which you send messages of optimism.”
“I saw him in the dining hall and he was laughing. I didn’t know why because I didn’t ask him, but he wasn’t in a bad mood. Thats all about it”.
He added, “We didn’t deliver what everyone wanted or expected, but we are still really united. That’s the good thing about everything that happened.”
And he stressed, “The situation is not bad inside the locker room. We learned how to handle the situation. We were not divided in a moment between the coach and the team, which is very helpful.”
And he added, “For a long time, it was clear from a certain point that this season would not be good historically. We made mistakes, we did not present many expected offers, and there was not enough continuity.
He explained, “We did not point fingers. It’s all good. If you don’t qualify for the Champions League, the best place you can finish is fifth, and that’s what we did.
And he concluded, “If you asked me 10 matches ago if this was possible, I would have answered no. What the players did is good, but not perfect. We did not finish the league in fifth place because of the last ten matches. We finished the season in this position because we lacked continuity before it.”
