Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has been told to bench Mo Salah as his side prepare to face Rangers this week.
The Egyptian winger has come under criticism for his part in a slow start to the term for the Reds that has them marooned mid-table in the Premier League, having been tipped as title contenders. They take on Rangers tomorrow on Champions League Group A's fourth matchday and Giovanni van Bronckhorst's side need a positive result to keep any hopes of last 16 qualification alive.
Klopp has been rocked by injury concerns ahead of the journey, with Joel Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold and attacker Luis Diaz out of the Ibrox game. But Anfield hero John Aldridge - who scored 50 times for Liverpool between 1987 and 1989 - reckons Klopp needs to be bold and stop being loyal to underperforming stars.
He told the Liverpool Echo: "I'm one of Mo Salah's biggest fans but he needs to be dropped. He needs to be left out because he's not doing himself justice.
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"He's not doing the team justice. It doesn't matter whether you're Mo Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi. At that stage, you've got to be left out for your own good.
"Whether Klopp can actually do that now that Diaz is injured, I don't know. Mo's not the only one, don't get me wrong. There are so many players below form and they have been for a while.
"The manager's trying to get them to play through it. It's very loyal but he doesn't really have many alternatives. You can't play games like the last two games, they've needed four goals to win. They should have won with three goals against Brighton, they should have drawn with Arsenal.
"They've given themselves too much to do time and time again. It's worrying, of course it's worrying. We're slowly becoming the new Man United. That's not right, that's not Liverpool."
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