Wayne Rooney has ripped into Mohamed Salah’s ‘selfish’ conduct after he aimed another dig at Liverpool boss Arne Slot over the weekend.
The Reds were beaten 4-2 by Aston Villa on Friday night to heap the pressure on Slot after what has been an underwhelming season.
Liverpool are fifth and yet to secure their Champions League spot having lost 12 of their 37 league matches, and many fans have turned on the Dutchman.
Salah, who returned from injury as a late substitute on Friday, is set to leave the club at the end of a campaign where his relationship with Slot has been tested.
And, following the Villa loss, he seemed to criticise the Liverpool boss in a social media post on Saturday where he accused the Reds of ‘crumbling to yet another defeat’ and called for a return to ‘heavy-metal attacking football’, a style synonymous with Slot’s predecessor Jurgen Klopp.
Rooney felt Salah had crossed a line with his latest outburst – which came after a high profile fall out earlier in the campaign when he said he had no relationship with Slot – and called for the Egyptian to be dropped for his Anfield farewell against Brentford on Sunday.
Wayne Rooney called for Mohamed Salah to be dropped for his Liverpool farewell on Sunday
Salah appeared to aim a dig at Liverpool boss Arne Slot in a bombshell tweet at the weekend
‘I find it sad at the end of what he’s done and what he’s achieved at Liverpool,’ he said on the Wayne Rooney Show. ‘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 anymore. 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 fall out 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 team-mates who are going to be there next season and let them have to deal with that as well and put them into an (awkward) position.’
Salah’s latest outpouring of frustration comes amid a hugely disappointing personal season for the forward, who has lifted nine trophies over nine years at Anfield.
Having won the Premier League’s Player of the Season award in 2024-25 after scoring 29 goals and adding 18 assists, he has netted just seven times this time around and set up six goals.
And Rooney felt that Salah’s comments were partly to detract from his underwhelming final campaign with the club.
‘I think Salah’s trying to vindicate himself and make himself feel better because he’s had a very poor season,’ Rooney added.
‘So 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.
‘Of course he deserves a good send off but does he deserve it just for this? It’s the second time he’s done it. It’s just a shame to see one of the great icon Premier League players leave the Premier League in this situation.’
Salah’s relationship with the under pressure Slot has been tested multiple times this season
In Salah’s bombshell social media post on Saturday afternoon, he wrote: ‘I have witnessed this club go from doubters to believers, and from believers to champions. It took hard work and I always did everything I could to help the club get there.
‘Nothing makes me prouder than that. Us crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve.
‘I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies.
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Mohamed Salah appears to take aim at under pressure Arne Slot with bombshell statement
‘That is the football I know how to play and that is the identity that needs to be recovered and kept for good. It cannot be negotiable and everyone that joins this club should adapt to it.
‘Winning some games here and there is not what Liverpool should be about. All teams win games.
‘Liverpool will always be a club that means a great deal to me and to my family. I want to see it succeed for long after I have moved on.
‘As I’ve always said, qualifying to next season’s Champions League is the bare minimum and I will do everything I can to make that happen.’
