Liverpool legend Graeme Souness has demanded more from Reds superstar Mohamed Salah in the aftermath of another quiet display from the Egypt international.
Salah was a passenger for much of the Reds Merseyside derby draw away at fierce rivals Everton. A hard-fought battle between the teams, Liverpool could only take one point back to the other side of Stanley Park with them due to a relatively underwhelming performance at Goodison Park.
While the woodwork was struck on a number of occasions, Jurgen Klopp's side hardly had an overwhelming amount of clear-cut goal-scoring opportunities. Salah struggled to have much of an influence throughout, as did his fellow Reds forwards Luis Diaz and marquee summer-signing Darwin Nunez.
The Reds number 11 has netted just two goals in six games this season, an undeniably disappointing return for a player of his calibre and Salah looked particularly disappointed after he failed to get in on the act during last week's 9-0 drubbing of Bournemouth.
However, Souness has provided a theory behind why the Egyptian could be failing to reach his usual heights in recent weeks. "I'm looking at Salah for Liverpool against Man United and in the first five minutes [Lisandro] Martinez goes right through him," the Scotsman recalled to Sky Sports.
"The rest of the game, Mo Salah looked for Martinez and looked for where he was. I've not seen the same Mo Salah since. I just hope - and he's signed the big contract he wanted, but at this level if you knock off half a per cent or one per cent then you are not the same player.
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"I hope this is not him getting semi into his armchair because he has signed a big contract," Souness added. "I'm saying that as a Liverpool supporter, hopefully to make him angry and prove me wrong."
Salah penned a mega-money contract extension earlier this summer that saw the Reds reupholster their wage structure just to keep the forward at the club amid reported interest from the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Following the full-time whistle at Goodison Park, Klopp quickly went on the defensive while discussing Salah's recent showings.
Pressed for comment on whether it was part of the plan for the 30-year-old to spend more time out wide this term, the Reds boss replied: "It’s not more than in other seasons, I’m not sure what you see there. We don’t want to have that. We want to have Mo there in the position and we want to have, and have had Mo, in central positions as well.
"Today especially we wanted to use Mo a bit more centrally. But we didn’t have a lot of time to train. We only recovered. I spoke a lot of about it, I’m not sure I was clear enough what I exactly wanted in the first half."
