Mohamed Salah\u2019s public criticism of Arne Slot has prompted sharp reactions from two Premier League winners, who say the remarks create unnecessary disruption as Liverpool approach the season\u2019s final game.<\/p>\n
Many understand some of Salah\u2019s complaints. The outgoing forward, the club\u2019s third all-time top scorer, remains a player who will always inspire support at Liverpool after nearly a decade of service. Still, the team has swung from being exposed to determined but unconvincing form while limping towards a fifth-placed finish, if they can hold that position.<\/p>\n
Wayne Rooney drew on his own experience under Sir Alex Ferguson to explain why he believes Salah should not be involved in the final game on Sunday. \u201cIf I was Arne Slot, I\u2019d have him nowhere near the stadium in the last game,\u201d Rooney told his self-title podcast, recalling his own summer 2013 fallout. \u201cI had it with Alex Ferguson. I had a disagreement and fallout and at Alex Ferguson\u2019s last game at Old Trafford, he left me out of the squad for that reason.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney described the situation as regrettable given Salah\u2019s contributions. \u201cI find it sad at the end of what he\u2019s done and what he\u2019s achieved at Liverpool. It\u2019s not the point for him to come out and aim another dig at Slot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rooney added tactical and fitness concerns. \u201cHe wants to play heavy metal football, so he\u2019s basically saying he wants J\u00fcrgen Klopp football. Now I don\u2019t think Mo Salah can cope with that type of football any more. I think his legs have gone to play at that high tempo and high intensity.\u201d He also accused Salah of creating problems for team-mates: \u201cHe\u2019s almost just dropped the grenade and said he doesn\u2019t trust and believe in Arne Slot and almost thrown his teammates who are going to be there next season and let them have to deal with that as well and put them into a position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary Neville used the same grenade image. \u201cMo Salah is walking out of the door and as he\u2019s just literally sort of about to get to the door and open it and walk out, he\u2019s pulled the pin out of a grenade and lobbed it back into the room,\u201d he said on his imaginatively titled podcast. Yet Neville predicted: \u201cHe will play in the final game because he\u2019s done too much.\u201d He added: \u201cThey\u2019re going to have to suck on the lemon this week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney concluded that Salah\u2019s conduct masks a poor season: \u201cI think Salah\u2019s trying to vindicate himself and make himself feel better because he\u2019s had a very poor season. So I think he\u2019s been very selfish in what he\u2019s done in the two occasions. It\u2019s a shame and fans will be on his side, but I think when you look deeper into it and having been in a dressing room in a similar situation to that as well, Mo Salah knows exactly what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rooney and Neville condemn Salah\u2019s attack on Arne Slot and warn of damage ahead of Liverpool finale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[299,1305,1304],"class_list":["post-13883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-arne-slot","tag-bench-selection","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}