Wayne Rooney has challenged Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah over his work rate throughout the Reds’ recent slump.
Salah is without a goal contribution across successive defeats to Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and, most recently, Chelsea, and Blues defender Marc Cucurella openly admitted they looked to exploit the Egyptian’s limited defensive work in the build-up to Estêvão’s late winner.
Manchester United legend Rooney was among those to question Salah’s approach to the latest defeat. Conor Bradley endured a torrid time up against Alejandro Garnacho and the winner eventually came down Liverpool’s right side when a Blues overload handed Cucurella the chance to cross in to Estêvão for a tap-in.
“Over the last week, I’d question his work ethic,” he told The Wayne Rooney Show. “We know he doesn’t always get back and defend as much, but I think, the Chelsea game... his full back was getting torn apart and he’s watching, not getting back, not helping him.
“Players like [Virgil] van Dijk and Alisson, who obviously wasn’t playing, the leaders in the team should be telling him, ‘You need to help out.’ For me, that was a worry. He’s looked a little bit lost over the last week.”
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Rooney admitted he found himself in a similar situation at United alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, whose left wing was often weakened at the back because of his attack-first approach. Sir Alex Ferguson tweaked his tactics to cover up the issue and Rooney challenged Arne Slot to do the same.
“Certainly over the last six months, the Liverpool fans I know in Liverpool were on his back,” he continued.
“Because he was scoring goals and winning you get away with it, but I think the best managers see that and they adjust.
“I’m not saying you leave him out the team. We had it with Ronaldo at Man Utd where, similarly, he wouldn’t track back as much, so Fergie moved him inside. So, you’ve still got that balance in the team, you’ve still got the work getting done but he moved him inside so he’s still on the pitch, because he’s always got a chance of scoring goals and winning games.
“When you get a little bit older as well, I think Slot maybe could have looked at it and thought, ‘You know what, Chelsea are killing us down this side.’ Move him inside a little bit, even if you put [Florian] Wirtz out there, then you still have that work ethic behind you but then have that brilliance of Salah to go and score goals. If I was a Liverpool fan that would be a little bit of a concern for me.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Wayne Rooney Takes Swipe at Mohamed Salah Amid Liverpool Woes.
