Liverpool reinforced their position at the summit of the Premier League with a hard-fought Merseyside derby win on Wednesday night, but that didn’t prevent one of their players from being heavily criticised over his performance.
The Reds’ forwards have come in for questioning of late after some poor goal returns in the first three months of 2025, but Diogo Jota chose the perfect occasion to end a run of 10 games without scoring and Luis Diaz put in a man-of-the-match performance on the left flank.
It was actually Mo Salah who had the quietest game of the starting attackers, not getting much change out of the Everton defence despite plenty of endeavour.
Salah slammed for ‘non-existent’ derby display
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock gave quite an unflattering assessement of the Egyptian’s performance after the match while praising one of his teammates.
Speaking on punditry duty for BBC Radio 5 Live, the 43-year-old opined (via The Mirror): “Luis Diaz was the bright spark. Mo Salah was non-existent.”
A harsh assessment of Salah’s performance for Liverpool
Alex Turk of the Daily Express was also scathing of Salah’s ‘ineffective’ display and handed him a lowly 3/10 in his post-match player ratings, although we find that (and Warnock’s criticism) to be rather harsh on the Liverpool winger.
Maybe the statistics don’t make for great reading as the Egyptian lost 11 of his 14 duels, gave away possession 19 times (second-most of any Reds player), didn’t complete any of his dribbles and had only one shot all night (Sofascore).
However, to judge him by those numbers alone would be to ignore the effort that he put in throughout the night, and at least that wasn’t lost on some reporters at Anfield.
The Liverpool Echo‘s Ian Doyle wrote that Salah ‘worked hard’ in the first half especially and ‘kept on’ running at Vitality Mykolenko, while the Daily Mail‘s Lewis Steele stated that the 32-year-old ‘was at the centre of everything good for Liverpool but just lacked that final pass or shot’, awarding him a 7/10 rating.
It mightn’t have been a vintage performance from the Egyptian, but it certainly wasn’t ‘non-existent’ like Warnock was asserting.
Let’s be honest, he’s been poor since January. Signs have been there for a long time that he’s struggling when faced with a full back who isn’t slow. He’s changed his game so he’s better with his distribution but in a years time, Mo will just be a passenger. He’s served us unbelievably but his time is over I’m afraid.
I couldn’t agree with you more, recently Mo Sala has let team down. His Everton performance was a replica of his display against Newcastle in the Carabao final. Mo Sala will be remembered for his legendary status at Liverpool FC but unfortunately his time is up.
Ye it was the same last year,I think a major problem is that he starts every game he is 32 ,he wants to start every game,I think both managers seem to be afraid to put him on the bench,I would hold onto him,but Chesia not even getting a chance,you could play him there,rest mo ,also play Chesia through the middle,and slot needs to start doing that in these last 8 games,change it up could wake mo up ,but a lot of the games we are only playing with 10men,start changing it up most teams now know how we are going to play give teams something to thing about,we know Chesia will run ,come back,we have some big games then play him ,but we are lost in that middle of the park we need that player that can hold but can play,let Ryan push on that little bit ,also needs to start Harvey that has me baffled??
True…sell him rather than giving him big wages when he can even sustained a high level performance for the run in…
I totally agree on Sala’s lack of performance
During the last two games. He is not affective anymore. Maybe a sign of aging?
Slot is also tentative to replace Sala early on during the match. No player is bigger than the game. If he does not perform to ecspectations, then he needs to be replaced at any time. We cant afford to play with a passenger all game.
Salah can’t even perform when needed for the run in…find a striker who can perform all 38 matches…too much praises ….how can he be in the running for the Ballon D Or when he gives 0 performance on the field….you need the champions league and premier league to be nodder for the award…
True Mo’s performances dipped drastically lately but before that, he was carried the team to the 12 point advantage that they have.
I’ve always said Liverpool needs an overhaul to their attack. I presume Isak will be at Anfield next season
If you’re being continually pulled and pushed, it makes it hard to do much, that how everton always play against liverpool . So one poor game out of all of them is pretty good. He has created more goals than most have scored, those who criticise him are the same jerks who do so every year. Obviously know much about football as every year they are wrong
Players have their up and down performance. It is not fair to critise salah just for Tonite game
Players have their up and down performance. It is not fair to judge salah just for tonite games
Agree with others. He gives the ball away more times than he scores. Luckily he still scores but him trying to dribble through defenders os embarrassing. The quick passing between Diaz, Curtis, Harvey and Jota is way more effective
I can’t believe the comments under this article. Mo Salah has 44 G/A which is a joint record for a 38 game season in the Premier League… with 8 games to go. 47 is the record, but achieved in a 42 game season, is likely to fall too. Salah is not a passenger on this bus, he’s the driver. Salah, or no player, will ever be bigger than the club, but if we’re writing players off for a bad month, there’s not a player in the world that shouldn’t retire tomorrow. Forget the lightening quick winger we had and appreciate the well rounded attacking marvel in front of you. Salah may fall off at some point, but if a season that’s tracking to end in nearly 60+ G/A (all comps) is falling off, sign him up!
All these morons criticising Mo Salah need to take another look at the stats for goals scored and assists this season. Salah is top of both, Jota is a good player but has not been performing, Diaz is a great player and always involved but a lack of goals. Think before you make silly comments.