Wayne Rooney has defended Arne Slot\u2019s position as Liverpool manager while insisting that the manager must consider dropping Mohamed Salah amid a troubling run of results. Rooney\u2019s intervention focussed on defensive issues down Liverpool\u2019s right side and the message that current selection sends to the squad.<\/p>\n
Slot freely admits that his star forward operates under different requirements to ensure that his energy is saved for the sharp end of the pitch. Opponents have regularly targeted the flank Salah vacates. This very weekend, Nottingham Forest scored their second goal of a 3\u20130 Anfield win by buccaneering down Liverpool\u2019s right wing, with Neco Williams running off Salah\u2019s shoulder to tee up Nicol\u00f2 Savona.<\/p>\n
Statistically the pattern is striking. Throughout the Premier League season, 22% of the shots Liverpool have faced have come down that flank\u2014the highest such proportion in the division\u2014compared to just 10% on the opposite side, per WhoScored.<\/p>\n
Rooney did not hold back on defensive responsibility. \u201cSalah is not helping them defensively,\u201d he told his self-titled podcast.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIf you\u2019re one of the players who they\u2019ve signed and you\u2019re on the bench and you\u2019ve seen him not running\u2014and again he\u2019s a club legend and everything he\u2019s done for the club\u2014but if you\u2019re on the bench, then what message does that send to you?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I was Slot, I\u2019d try and make a big decision just so it has an impact on the rest of the team.\u201d When asked by Kelly Somers to clarify if he meant dropping Salah, Rooney confirmed that was his stance.<\/p>\n
Rooney emphasised the need to be hard to beat. \u201cWhen you\u2019re not winning games, you want to try and stay compact and hard to beat, so I think while they\u2019re going through this period, 100% he needs to make a decision,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He also recognised the wider context, pointing to the effect of Diogo Jota\u2019s death. \u201cYou\u2019ve probably got to look at the effect of what sadly happened to Jota,\u201d Rooney added. \u201cWhat effect does that have on the players because that\u2019s his teammates? That surely has to have an effect.\u201d He concluded: \u201cBut then there\u2019s no excuse for not fighting and not tackling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not all pundits agree on the same remedy. Gary Neville warned: \u201cYou can\u2019t lose six games in seven if you are Liverpool Football Club,\u201d the Sky Sports pundit warned. \u201cIt\u2019s unacceptable. The manager has to change the style or the system and help them. It means being more solid, personnel changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also suggested personnel tweaks. \u201c [Milos] Kerkez is struggling, [Ibrahima] Konat\u00e9 is struggling,\u201d the retired defender pointed out. \u201cI called on it a few weeks ago, I said maybe Joe Gomez should play right back, Andy Robertson at left back and play as a narrow back four. Be a bit more pragmatic. Something has to change in the collective. ]\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rooney urges Arne Slot to act, suggesting Mohamed Salah could be dropped as Liverpool’s form stalls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4664,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1162,299,1087],"class_list":["post-4665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-arne-slot","tag-coaching-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665","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=4665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}