After Liverpool’s failure to qualify for the Champions League was confirmed, Mohamed Salah took it to Twitter to vent out his frustration and claimed it is “too soon” for a message of hope. Prior to Thursday night’s clash between rivals Manchester United and Chelsea, Jurgen Klopp’s team still had a slim chance of finishing in the top four.

To remain in the top four race, Liverpool needed Manchester United to lose against Chelsea. But United’s 4-1 victory assured that Liverpool couldn’t overtake them and fail to place in the top four in the Premier League. Nonetheless, Mohamed Salah was gutted for the Reds as a tumultuous season which will see Liverpool finish outside top four for the first time since 2015-16 approaches its end this weekend.

Mohamed Salah ‘devastated’ as Liverpool couldn’t achieve ‘bare minimum’ target of UCL qualification

Liverpool tried to use a late-season surge to reclaim their place in the Champions League after a sluggish start and some bad away performance. The 10-game winning streak for Klopp’s club includes seven victories and three draws, but they still have a lot of work to do.

In their most recent match, the Reds were unable to put pressure on their opponents, as they were able to draw 1-1 with Aston Villa. Man United and Newcastle both knew that a point from their remaining games would guarantee Champions League status since they were unable to defeat Unai Emery’s team.

Newcastle earned their point when Leicester held them to a scoreless draw on Monday. But Manchester United went one better, defeating Chelsea 4-1 at Old Trafford. That locked in the top-four of the Premier League for this season with Manchester City champions, Arsenal runners-up and either of Man United and Newcastle finishing third and fourth. However, with no Champions League football for Liverpool, Mohamed Salah lamented on social media:

“I’m totally devastated. There’s absolutely no excuse for this. We had everything we needed to make it to next year’s Champions League and we failed. We are Liverpool and qualifying to the competition is the bare minimum. I am sorry but it’s too soon for an uplifting or optimistic post. We let you and ourselves down.”

Liverpool are now at least certain to finish in fifth place, even if they can no longer place in the top four with the likes of Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez having to re-adjust to Europa League. With one game remaining, Brighton, who still had a chance to catch them heading into their game against Manchester City, only managed a draw against the champions and are now four points behind Klopp’s team.Liverpool will play Southampton at the bottom of the league in their last game of the season. Mohamed Salah and co were left to blame themselves after a draw against Aston Villa last weekend severely dented Liverpool’s hopes of finishing in the top four.

Unai Emery’s team had taken the lead through Jacob Ramsey, and Roberto Firmino’s late equaliser in his final game at Anfield before leaving in the summer was too little, too late. Liverpool’s seven-game winning streak was ended with the 1-1 draw. While he may be devastated for the Reds’ underachievement, Mohamed Salah will have some content with his 19 goals and 11 assists in 37 league outings.