Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has accused Mohamed Salah of “disappearing” when his side need him most as he predicted a summer exit for the Egypt international.
Salah has scored just twice in his last eight league games and has come under fire for a poor run of form which has coincided with a string of bad results for the Reds, who were eliminated from the Europa League and have seen their Premier League title hopes fade.
Speaking on the Up Front podcast, Souness claimed Salah has failed to turn up when Liverpool truly needed his skills.
“When the going gets tough and another player puts it on him, Salah will disappear from a game,” said Souness, who made 358 appearances for Liverpool and helped the club to five league titles.
“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.”
Souness went on to accuse Salah of being “selfish” but did admit that every elite forward should have that personality trait.
“I believe Mohamed Salah is off and leaving Liverpool,” Souness explained. “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 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 ten 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 been world class in his time at Liverpool. Goals change games and his goals have had an enormous influence on Liverpool since he’s been at the club. I think he still gets into the Arsenal team and certainly would’ve gotten into the Manchester City team over the past five years.”
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