Garth Crooks has accused Mo Salah of selfishly pursuing goals at the cost of the total team performance last term.
The Reds suffered one of their most disappointing campaigns (particularly given that it following the title win of 2019/20) under Jurgen Klopp, just scraping into the top four courtesy of a superb late charge.
“I heard my non-selection of Mohamed Salah in my team of the year got one or two a little hot under the collar. Well, I make no apologies for that. Salah made my team of the season but crudely chased the Golden Boot award,” the former Tottenham star wrote for BBC Sport.
“His selfishness had a negative effect on Sadio Mane in particular and, in my view, had an adverse effect on Liverpool’s campaign last season – a point I made at the time.
“This season Salah looks like a team player again and his goals are coming naturally.
“He is no longer looking for cheap penalties and is back to the player he was the season Liverpool won the title, and that’s why he makes my team of the week.”
However, the common consensus until now has been that the Egyptian played an integral role in keeping the Merseysiders’ hopes of Champions League football alive where other individual performances nosedived.
On 23 goals for the season (across all competitions) so far, our No.11 is only eight efforts away from matching his tally of the prior season.
The accusation of selfishness seems unfairly wide of the mark when one considers one of Salah’s main tasks is to put the ball in the back of the net – and frequently!
Indeed, on that basis, all four of our usual starting forwards could be accused of a degree of selfishness in that regard.
Regardless, anyone who fully observed Liverpool’s prior campaign will be more than aware that our Egyptian King was arguably the difference between playing in the lower tiers of European football and getting an invite to the continent’s premier competition.
#Ep28 of The Red Nets Podcast (Special Edition): The Koppies Awards…