'Salah is the most selfish player I have ever seen' claims Liverpool legend

Suraj Radia

• 2 May 2024 18:40 BST
• 4 min read

Mohamed Salah has been described as ‘the most selfish player I have ever witnessed’ by former Liverpool legend Graeme Souness.

Salah has come under fire after a sideline spat with Jurgen Klopp during Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with West Ham when he was coming on as a late substitute, with the Egyptian then telling the media ‘there will be fire’ if he speaks about the incident.

While the expectation is that he will remain at Anfield this summer, Salah still faces an uncertain future on Merseyside as he enters the final 12 months of his contract, while teams in Saudi Arabia have not given up on signing the 32-year-old.

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Souness was critical of Salah and believes the forward will leave Liverpool and that he has an ‘exceptionally large opinion of himself’, claiming the veteran ‘disappears’ whenever ‘another player puts it on him’.

“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,” Souness said on the Three Up Front podcast. “When Sadio Mane was there they’d fall out all the time.”

“When the going gets tough and another player puts it on him, Salah will disappear from a game,” Souness added. “Last season at Old Trafford, Lisandro Martínez 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.

Salah critcised as Liverpool ‘bullied’ in declining form

Salah is Liverpool’s top scorer this season but he has struggled in recent weeks, scoring just twice in his last eight games across all competitions as his side’s Premier League title challenge grinded to a halt.

The decline in Salah’s form has seen him start two of the last three games on the bench, with the ex-Chelsea man only coming on in the 79th minute at West Ham, much to his frustration.

In particular, Salah drew criticism for Liverpool’s Europe League exit to Atalanta as well as their humiliating derby loss to Everton, where Souness claimed Klopp’s side were ‘bullied’.

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Souness said: “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.”