Mo Salah ‘disappears when going will get powerful’ claims Liverpool icon Graeme Souness
Graeme Souness has launched a bizarre attack on Mohamed Salah – claiming he’s “the most selfish player” he has ever seen and that he “disappears” in tough games.
Liverpool’s fifth highest goalscorer of all time is widely recognised as one of the best players of the Premier League era as a result of his phenomenal striking exploits over the last seven seasons in a row. But his contributions have been questioned by former Reds captain Souness – himself one of the greatest stars in the club’s history.
The former Sky Sports pundit’s comments come after Salah clashed with manager Jurgen Klopp on the sidelines during the 2-2 draw at West Ham. Salah was furious at being benched for the second time in a week and had to be held back by Darwin Nunez as he prepared to come on as a second-half substitute.
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Despite being Liverpool’s top scorer this season, with 24 goals and 13 assists in 41 games across all competitions, Salah’s form has dipped recently. He has just one goal in his last six matches, including a consolation penalty against Atalanta as the Reds crashed out of the Europa League.
Salah was dropped against Fulham and West Ham. He also failed to make an impact in the Merseyside derby defeat by Everton, which effectively ended Liverpool’s title hopes in Klopp’s final season.
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These events have intensified speculation that Salah could leave Anfield in the summer transfer window. Souness said: “I believe Mohamed Salah is off and leaving Liverpool. He has been fabulous for Liverpool, but if he leaves to the Saudi Pro League then he’ll be the biggest star in that part of the world,” he said on the William Hill podcast, Three Up Front, reports the Mirror.
“He no doubt has an exceptionally large opinion of himself, and he’ll have been angry at not starting the game against West Ham last week. I think the situation with Jurgen Klopp was a reaction to only being brought on with 10 minutes to go it was more Salah than it was Klopp in that confrontation.
“Salah is the most selfish player I have ever witnessed. Even prior to that game, whenever Klopp takes him off, he is never happy about it. That is what you want from your players, if you take them off on two goals, they should want to stay on to score a third. When Sadio Mane was there they’d fall out all the time.”
Salah has 210 goals in 346 games for Liverpool and has scored 20 or more goals in all competitions every season since he arrived at the club – a Liverpool record. He is six goals ahead of Darwin Nunez this year, but Souness insists the 31-year-old has a bad habit of drifting out of matches when his team are struggling and most need him.
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“When the going gets tough and another player puts it on him, Salah will disappear from a game,” Souness said. “Last season at Old Trafford, Lisandro Martinez went through him early on, and for the rest of the game Salah was looking over his shoulder for Martinez he doesn’t like that side of the game. He’ll never get himself hurt.”
“It ties into the fact that in the last two weeks Liverpool have shown something that I didn’t think they were capable of, they’re getting bullied. It happened when they got beaten 3-0 at Anfield by Atalanta and it happened against Everton at Goodison Park not so long ago.
“Everton had too much passion and aggression and Liverpool got bullied again. You have to be mean and angry to play football, but for whatever reason that has gone completely from Liverpool’s game. That is the difference between winning and losing matches.
“As a Liverpool player, if there’s one game where you need to turn up with aggression and fight, it is against Everton. Of all the games not to turn up, to perform like that against Everton is unacceptable.”
