Virgil van Dijk has revealed Mohamed Salah was "affected" by his long-running contract standoff with Liverpool chiefs last season.
The Egyptian forward was locked in talks with his employer over extending his deal at Anfield, which was due to expire at the end of this season. Salah had spoken out publicly on the concerning impasse, insisting he was "not asking for crazy stuff" as Liverpool played hardball in negotiations.
It looked at one stage that the talks would not come to a mutual conclusion, raising the prospect of Salah moving on either this summer or next. That was until Salah eventually signed a new contract just over a month after Liverpool's Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid, putting an end to any speculation over his future, though van Dijk conceded the saga had taken its toll on his teammate.
Van Dijk told The Telegraph : "At the end of the season, from maybe April until the end, there was a lot of talk about (his) contract and stuff. We’re all human beings and maybe that affected him a little bit, unfortunately."
Salah struggled to make a real impact in the final though was expertly denied an equaliser by man of the match Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois. After such a scintillating start to the 2021/22 campaign, Salah then hit a rough patch from the end of February, scoring just four times in 22 matches over the final three months of the season.
Despite his clear dip in scoring form, van Dijk is adamant Salah was still producing the goods for his team and has now put his contract episode behind him. "He still showed high levels and quality and he played with a free mind and obviously he’s happy to be here and I think everyone is happy to be here," the Dutchman continued.
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“He showed it already for the last three years. He’s under the microscope all of the time. He created that himself, he’s such a good player, but he shows that consistently all the time in my opinion.”
Salah got the new season off to a fantastic start as he scored a crucial penalty in the 3-1 win over Manchester City in Saturday's Community Shield. The 30-year-old gave City full-back Joao Cancelo all manner of problems in the opening phases of the game before getting on the scoresheet from the spot to put the Reds 2-1 ahead.
Salah was rested for Liverpool's friendly against Strasbourg just 24 hours later as Jurgen Klopp now looks ahead to the Premier League season opener versus Fulham next Saturday lunchtime. It will be the first campaign Salah will experience without fellow frontman Sadio Mane at the club following his switch to Bayern Munich, but the performance of Darwin Nunez off the bench versus Man City will have buoyed Reds fans.
The £85million new signing won the penalty for Salah to score, before grabbing a goal himself, silencing critics who have been quick to mock his inconsistent form during pre-season. Klopp said after the game: "We live in a world where everybody gets judged on first sight and that's not helpful for nobody, but it happens constantly.
"We were today - both teams - not at 100 per cent of their physical, usual situation, if you want. But in the first few games [of pre-season] we were not even close to the fitness level of today. Then when he came on, we passed each ball for him to chase it and after the third ball he was completely killed and then everybody judged his first touches and these kind of things.
"It's just a joke, but we have to live with that, he will deal with it brilliantly, we are patient, and we know he can do good stuff. I liked his impact today."
