Steve Nicol has implored Arne Slot to drop one player from the Liverpool starting XI who, in his view, ‘does absolutely nothing for the team’.
Having scored in both matches against Wolves last week, Mo Salah was unable to extend that sequence as the Reds fell to a 1-0 defeat away to Galatasaray on Tuesday that John Aldridge described as ‘horrible’ to watch.
In fact, the Egyptian was so subdued that his head coach called him ashore after an hour, sending on Jeremie Frimpong (normally a right-back but also capable of playing in attack) in his place instead.
During the post-match debrief on ESPN FC, Craig Burley tore into the performance of Florian Wirtz, after which Nicol let rip about another much-celebrated Liverpool attacker.
The former Reds defender fumed: “As much as we’re talking about Florian Wirtz, you could say the same thing about Mo Salah. He does absolutely nothing for the team.
“He needs to get dropped again. Does [Slot] just say, ‘Right, Frimpong’s starting or [Rio] Ngumoha’s starting; and Salah, you’re sitting’? It actually is at that stage where anything really would be better.”
Nicol is no stranger to criticising the winger, having recently claimed that the 33-year-old is in ‘irreversible decline‘ and also insisted earlier in the season that Liverpool should unequivocally accept any big-money transfer offers for our number 11.
The anti-Salah narrative from the Anfield legend can get tiresome, and nobody should lose sight of how phenomenal a player the Egyptian has been for the Reds, but even his most faithful supporters would acknowledge that he was peripheral at best against Galatasaray.
Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle handed him a lowly 5/10 in his post-match player ratings, observing that the forward ‘faded horribly’ before being substituted, and his statistics from his hour on the pitch (via Sofascore) don’t make for particularly joyous reading.
After eight consecutive years in which he never dipped below 23 goals for a single season, it’s staggering to think that Salah is only on nine for the current campaign by mid-March, and the harsh truth is that there have been too many matches in recent months which have passed him by.
Tottenham Hotspur’s visit to Anfield on Sunday may be timely for the Egyptian – his 16 goals in previous games against Spurs is the joint-most he’s scored against any one opponent (along with Manchester United).
How he and LFC could do with that tally being expanded even further at the weekend, though we suspect that even a hat-trick wouldn’t alter Nicol’s opinion on him.
Nicol does nothing for the team with his continous negative clickbauit motivated backstabbing
Revert to the 4-3-3 we used. Our best player last season cannot be reduced to nothing in just 1 year. He has been so fit. Try doing the same to Messi or Ronaldo and then complain they are poor.
