Rooney calls on Arne Slot to drop Mohamed Salah

Wayne Rooney has called on Arne Slot to drop Mohamed Salah in a bid to spark Liverpool back into a run of form.

After losing 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, the defending champions now find themselves in 11th place on the Premier League table, 11 points behind pace-setters Arsenal.

Salah failed to score or assist a teammate in the defeat which marked Liverpool’s sixth reversal in their last seven Premier League games.

After Saturday’s results and the previous league defeat to Manchester City, Liverpool have now conceded six unanswered goals in the last two league matches.

“Salah is not helping them defensively,” Rooney said on The Wayne Rooney Show.

“I’m sure if you’re one of them players they’ve signed, you’re sat on the bench and you’ve seen them not running — I get he’s a club legend and everything he’s done on the club – but if you’re on the bench then what message does that send if you see one of your teammates not running back and he’s starting every game?

“If I was Arne Slot, I’d try and make a big decision just so it has an impact on the rest of the team.

“When you’re not winning games, you want to stay compact and hard to beat.

“While I think they’re going through this period, 100% he [Slot] needs to make a decision and get them compact, get them hard to beat and every player running back and then when they start winning games you can bring him back in and hope that he is running back more.

“I think that will have an impact on the team for sure.”

It wasn’t just Salah who came in for criticism, with Rooney focusing on a number of senior players who have not performed to the expected standard.

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“They haven’t been great at all, and that’s not just van Dijk and Salah,” Rooney said.

“I’d like to say they’re the leaders in the team but the likes of Mac Allister, who’s been there for a few years now, Gravenberch who did really well last year, these players have got to pull things out, get behind everyone and try and create a team that’s going to win again.”

Rooney pointed to the death of Diogo Jota as having a possible effect on Liverpool’s downturn in fortunes.

“They’re going through a hard time, aren’t they,” he said.

“You’ve probably got to have a look at Jota, sadly what happened to Jota, what effect has that had on players.

“That’s his teammate, you’re with him every day and that surely has to have an effect.”