After just seven goals and assists and a fifth-place finish in the Premier League, Mohamed Salah's final season at Anfield was always going to invite scrutiny.
That dip in output following years of extraordinary consistency, and a contract situation that rumbled on for far too long, gave pundits plenty of ammunition. But one man who played alongside Salah, has had enough of the criticism.
A Liverpool legend and one of the most prominent voices in football led the charge, publicly accusing Salah of selfishness and suggesting his body language had become a problem. Others in the media followed suit, and as the season wore on, the narrative around one of Anfield's greatest ever players grew increasingly unforgiving.
Dejan Lovren's Verdict on Jamie Carragher’s Criticism of Mohamed Salah
Dejan Lovren, who made 141 appearances under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool and won the Champions League and Premier League alongside the Egyptian, has spoken out in defence of his close friend, delivering a scathing opinion on those who’ve spoken out.
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As quoted by Goal, Lovren made no attempt to soften his stance over the way Salah has been portrayed, calling Jamie Carragher's criticism 'disgusting'. He said :
"The way they treated him this season is not harsh, It's disgusting. Why didn't they talk about him like this for the past eight or nine years? Tell me... OK, one season, and then he's the target again. There are so many other issues."
Lovren's view is that Carragher, like many TV pundits, is more interested in the performance than the analysis, and that his comments come with a caveat: he’d never say them to a player's face.
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"He's being really heavily criticised. Some pundits do it just to attract attention, maybe because they haven't succeeded in other areas of their lives, so now they need to perform well... especially Carragher, he says whatever he wants,” Lovren said.
“I always said he should tell him this to his face, say all these things to Mo to his face. He'll never say that. Because I know he never will, because he never said it to me. He's talked badly about me too, but he never said that to me anyway. You know, he's just performing on TV and he gets paid for it, so he needs to perform this way."
Why Dejan Lovren Blames Arne Slot For Salah's Exit
When discussing what exactly led to Salah’s departure – with the current Liverpool winger to leave Anfield when his contract expires on June 30 – the Croatian was confident in saying that the club itself wasn’t the issue, it was one man. Arne Slot.
"I don't think it's the management (that pushed Salah to leave). "I think it's just one person, and I think it's just the manager. They didn't have a good relationship. Let's put it simply. With Klopp, he had a really good relationship. It wasn't always perfect, but they knew each other very well, let's say that too, and they trusted each other, they liked each other, and Mo gave everything on the pitch for Klopp, and Klopp gave him that trust.”
In Lovren’s view, the difference between the Klopp and Slot eras couldn’t be more night and day. The environment Klopp created allowed Salah to flourish in a way that the last 18 months simply didn’t replicate.