Mohamed Salah Torn Apart by Wayne Rooney But Former Teammate Comes to His Defence

There have been differing opinions on the wild comments Salah made against Liverpool and Arne Slot.

Mohamed Salah has slapped himself right at the centrepiece of Liverpool’s latest crisis. / Molly Darlington/Getty Images

Wayne Rooney did not hold back in his scathing criticism of Mohamed Salah’s divisive comments lambasting Liverpool and his manager Arne Slot over the weekend. However, Salah’s former Chelsea teammate John Terry took a very different point of view.

Salah knew a backlash was coming his way when he vented his fury in Elland Road’s mixed zone on Saturday night, having been named as a substitute for the third Premier League game on the spin. “Tomorrow [Jamie] Carragher is going to go for me again and again and that’s fine,” he shrugged.

The ex-Liverpool defender has remained uncharacteristically quiet since Salah’s explosive interview. The same cannot be said for the other retired professionals of his generation.

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A stack of Liverpool-leaning pundits derided Salah’s outburst, which effectively boiled down to the 33-year-old making himself out to be an innocent scapegoat during the club’s dire run of form. Last season’s Player of the Year demanded “respect” for his past triumphs. “I don’t have to go every day fighting for my position because I earned it,” he claimed.

Rooney took particular issue with this line.

“To have the arrogance to say he doesn’t have to earn his place because he has already earned his place, you need to be at your best every week to try and stay in the team,” he seethed on his own podcast. “If I was one of his teammates, I wouldn’t be happy at all with what he said because this is where Liverpool need him most.

“If anything, he has thrown Liverpool under the bus with his words.”

Mohamed Salah was benched for a third straight match for Liverpool. / Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

The former Derby County and Birmingham City manager argued that Slot should drop Salah for Liverpool’s Champions League clash with Inter as punishment for his comments. “Arne Slot has to show his authority and pull him in and say, ‘You are not travelling with the team, what you said is not acceptable.’”

Regardless of his immediate future, Rooney was concerned that Salah’s entire eight-and-a-half-year tenure had been undermined. “He is absolutely destroying his legacy at Liverpool,” Manchester United’s all-time top scorer sighed. “I am sure over the next couple of years he will regret saying what he has.”

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John Terry Backs Salah

John Terry was no stranger to taking issue with his manager’s decisions. / IMAGO/PA Images

Rather than join the pile-on, Terry defended Salah. The former Chelsea captain did not have much of an overlap with the Egyptian forward during his erratic spell in west London—in fact, Terry has been at pains to defend the club’s decision to get rid of Salah as he “wasn’t ready for the group.”

Nevertheless, the former England skipper accepted the argument that he has been unfairly treated by Liverpool. “I think he’d be the first one to say he’s been out of form this season, but I have to agree with him as well. I think he has been made a scapegoat a little bit. I think a lot of Liverpool players, including himself, have been out of form recently,” Terry told his own TikTok channel.

Salah claimed that he has been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and insisted that “that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.” The right winger has suffered a severe dip in attacking output this season which has, in turn, shone an unflattering spotlight on his lack of defensive involvement.

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The argument that Salah has earned the right to forever remain in the team doesn’t hold up to much scrutiny but he—and Terry—have some justification in pointing out that other players have also struggled. However, Salah is the only player to start both of Liverpool’s damaging home defeats to Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven before being dropped for the subsequent three matches.

Terry argued against the very notion of dropping Salah at all: “And to leave him out—I’m not being funny, if there’s one player that can win you a game, it’s going to be him, so it’s a big call from the manager.” Yet, if Slot was forced to drop his star man, the Chelsea icon took issue with the lack of explanation afforded to Salah.

“Also, when you keep him on side, when you bring experienced players in the office and give them the reasons why they are being left out, you have nowhere to go but being shown that respect from the manager is really important,” Terry noted.

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