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Mohamed Salah has endured a difficult 2025-26 season at Liverpool ahead of his departure.
Former Manchester United defender Paul Parker has claimed that Mohamed Salah’s form has been lacklustre for the past 18 months.
Salah is preparing to bring the curtain down on his nine-year Liverpool career at the end of the season. The winger, who is the Reds’ third all-time top scorer, has agreed to leave by mutual consent despite having a year left on his Anfield deal.
Last campaign, Salah plundered 34 goals and 23 assists in all competitions as he spearheaded Liverpool’s Premier League title triumph and was awarded a bumper new contract. But this time around, his output has dropped and he’s managed to score only 12 times and produce nine assists. After a 3-3 draw at Leeds United in December, in which Salah was named on the bench for a third successive game, he claimed he had been ‘thrown under a bus’ and had ‘no relationship’ with head coach Arne Slot.
Salah is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury and watched the Reds’ 3-2 loss to Manchester United from the Old Trafford stands last week.
Parker suggested that Liverpool would have wanted Salah to start against their fierce foes for PR reasons - but hit out at the Egypt captain’s performances have been underwhelming for longer than 2025-26.
Parker, speaking via Zamsino.com said: “Media-wise for Liverpool, they wanted Salah playing against United game on Sunday and they wanted him to score, so it's a great story and they can gloss it up even more, when at the end of the day, most football fans will realise that his last 18 months, have been absolute sh*t.
“Maybe they might have started him because, again, it would have been good PR for him to say it's his last ever game in that fixture against United.
“The manager could have been forced to play him because of that for that reason, PR-wise and everything rather than him sitting on the bench. And if he's sitting on the bench and they're not winning the manager's always going to be under pressure to put him on.
“You don't want him, you'd rather him not be there because he gets in other players' heads just by sitting there and the way he conducts himself. So the manager's under immense pressure to start him rather than have him sat on the bench.
“He doesn't deserve to start. He doesn't look the same player. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Slot doesn't want him now, but it's been forced upon him, I'd imagine.”
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