Rooney says ‘selfish’ Mo Salah should be dropped for final Liverpool match

Wayne Rooney says that Liverpool coach Arne Slot should drop Mohamed Salah for the final match of the season after he launched a scathing attack on the way the Reds have performed this season.

Salah took to social media following Liverpool’s 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa and wrote that the club must return to being a “heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear”.

His words echoed former boss Jurgen Klopp’s philosophy and seemed to be an understated barb towards Slot with whom Salah has had issues this season.

Slot dropped the 33-year-old to the bench after a stuttering run of results in the lead-up to Christmas, with Salah claiming in December that his relationship with the manager had broken down. It was later announced that Salah would be leaving Liverpool this summer.

Rooney, meanwhile, labelled Salah’s actions as “sad” and “selfish” on his own BBC programme, The Wayne Rooney Show, and called on the influential player to be dropped from the game that would be his Liverpool farewell.

“I find it sad at the end of what he’s done and what he’s achieved at Liverpool,” Rooney explained. “It’s not the point for him to come out and aim another dig at Slot.

“He wants to play heavy metal football, so he’s basically saying he wants Jurgen Klopp football. Now I don’t 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.

“If I was Arne Slot, I’d have him nowhere near the stadium in the last game. I had it with Alex Ferguson. I had a disagreement and fallout and at Alex Ferguson’s last game at Old Trafford, he left me out of the squad for that reason.

“He’s almost just dropped the grenade and said he doesn’t 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.”

Rooney also claimed that he believed Salah’s actions and shots towards Slot were “selfish” and that the manager should keep him away from the squad for Sunday’s Premier League finale.

He added: “I think he’s been very selfish in what he's done in the two occasions. It’s 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’s doing.

“That’s your manager. You can’t publicly disrespect him twice the way he has and get away with it. And that’s where, if I was Arne Slot, I’d have to pull rank and just say, 'Listen, you’re not coming anywhere near the place on Saturday, whether you like it or not.' I really doubt he will do it, but I think he should.”

The Independent