Graeme Souness destroys Mo Salah with brutal rant – 'He's shown a lack of appetite'

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Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has become the latest pundit to brutally call out Mohamed Salah , claiming he has not turned up for the Reds this season.

Liverpool are in crisis in the Premier League , with their 3-0 thrashing by Nottingham Forest on Saturday dropping them to 12th in the table – 11 points adrift of leaders Arsenal . The Reds’ title defence is all but over after just 12 matches following a dreadful run of six defeats in seven league games – as many as they had suffered in the previous 58 matches. Manager Arne Slot is under mounting pressure to turn things around after taking responsibility for the current slump .

But while Slot has fronted up, insisting the bad form is his fault, Souness has a different take. He believes the onus is on the players to perform on the pitch and singled out Salah for particular criticism after another anonymous performance against Forest.

“My blame would be on the players right now,” Souness said on talkSPORT. “He (Slot) will be using the same words, the same tactics, training the same way, resting them the same way, the travel is the same. He’s doing all that and he’ll be scratching his head and staying awake at night. I put it firmly at the feet of the players.”

He added: “Take the new signings out of the picture. What’s happened to the guys that won the league last time? They’re the same players… I’m not absolving the manager of any blame but he’s got a group of players that were bloody good last year and people were paying them enormous plaudits, correctly so…”

The former Liverpool captain and manager was then asked if Salah needs to do better. He replied: “Oh Christ! How long have we got? He’s been an absolute superstar. This is the nicest thing I can say about Salah: he’s been the go-to man for the last seven years. If you’re picking an all-time Liverpool XI, he’s one of the first names on the team sheet.

“But I think it’s his brother who has turned up this season. I saw an incident in the Community Shield. I’m looking for little signals. He had his back to the sideline and a ball is played up towards the Crystal Palace left-back. He’s not going to win it, he’s not the most physical type, but he could at least go and try and make life difficult for the full-back. He made no attempt to make that challenge.

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“He’s never been the bravest. He’s never going to get hurt in a 50/50, and I wouldn’t want him to because he’s such a genius at the top end. But he’s shown a lack of appetite. I’m sorry, but hard words are sometimes the kindest words and I think he needs hard words, and ultimately they’ll get him back to being the superstar that he’s been for Liverpool. This season he has not turned up.”

Salah has just five goals and three assists in 17 appearances this season after helping Liverpool win the title with his best attacking returns of 34 goals and 23 assists in 52 games in 2024/25. Wayne Rooney made a similar point to Souness on Monday, calling on Slot to drop the Egypt star.

He said on the Wayne Rooney Show : “Salah is not helping them defensively and if you’re one of the players who they’ve signed and you’re sat on the bench and you’ve seen him not running…

"I get that he’s a club legend and everything he’s done for the club, but if you’re on the bench then what message does it send to you, that your teammate is not running back? He’s starting every game. If I was Arne Slot I’d try and make a big decision that has an impact on the rest of the team.”

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