Sam Allardyce hits out at Jamie Carragher over ‘absolutely pathetic’ Liverpool statement

Sam Allardyce has hit out at Jamie Carragher’s ‘pathetic’ comments after the Liverpool legend suggested that Mohamed Salah ‘looks like his legs have gone’.

After three further defeats in a row, Liverpool claimed a 2-0 win over West Ham at the weekend to provide some tomporary respite for the embattled Arne Slot.

The defending champions have endured a miserable defence of their title so far, and currently sit eighth in the Premier League table and nine points off Arsenal.

Needing to shake things up, Slot made the eye-catching decision to drop Salah to the bench on the weekend, preferring to deploy Cody Gakpo and Florian Wirtz in the wide areas instead.

The Egyptian, who won the golden boot last season, still has six goal contributions in 12 league games, but has not looked anywhere near his sharpest so far this campaign.

And Carragher suggested that Salah is just one of three Liverpool veterans who are beginning to show their age, recently telling CBS Sports: ‘The catalyst for Liverpool at the very start of the run in 2018 with Jurgen Klopp was Alisson, Van Dijk, and Salah.

‘Alisson’s injured a lot now, he doesn’t play so much. But you watch Van Dijk now, not the same player, and Mo Salah looks like his legs have gone.’

The comments did not sit well with former Premier League manager Allardyce, though, who said Carragher ‘should know better’ than to rush to such hasty conclusions, especially when it came to Salah.

‘Stop it. He should know better. He should really know better,’ Allardyce said on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast.

‘That’s an absolutely pathetic statement, but he’s good at them, isn’t he?

‘He’s good at just throwing it out there for a bit of, you know, ‘popularity’? To keep himself on the front end of it. That’s a disgrace.

‘His legs haven’t gone. How can his legs go from what he did last year, having the summer off, and then his legs go this year? How can that happen? It doesn’t happen overnight.

‘How does he know anyway? What does he know? He doesn’t train with him, he doesn’t watch him train, he sees him play, and he might not be doing so well, but that’s like many of the Liverpool players.

‘Isak hasn’t played well, so have his legs gone already?’

Former Manchester United defender Wes Brown was also keen to leap to Salah’s defence and insisted the Egyptian forward is far from finished at the elite level.

‘Salah’s more comfortable playing when Liverpool are playing well,’ Brown said. ‘Salah’s attributes are not going to change; he’s still as dangerous when he gets the ball as any other time.

‘He’s never really done all the running back anyway. At the same time, Liverpool haven’t just had the same possession and the same spaces going forward as they have done before, because they’re not playing well as a team. Not everyone knows everyone yet, and it’s showing.

‘Salah’s not getting the right ball at the right time, or he’s getting less of the ball, but to say that his quality isn’t there, that’s not right.’

Liverpool are back in action on Wednesday as the Reds host Sunderland at Anfield, looking to make it back-to-back league wins for the first time since September.

Slot offered no hints as to whether Salah would return to the starting lineup for the midweek clash, but said the 33-year-old had responded well to his benching.

‘Of course, a player is not happy he isn’t playing,’ the Dutchman said. ‘He was not the only one who wasn’t happy he wasn’t starting, I can tell you – and that’s normal.

‘But the way he behaved is what you would expect from the professional he is. He was very supportive for his teammates, handled himself really well during the day and yesterday in the session as well.

‘You cannot be a player that’s available every three days and play at those high standards if you go with your emotions but Mo is so disciplined, knows what he has to do to stay fit.

‘No matter if he plays well, doesn’t play or if he doesn’t play he will always be that top professional and that is what he’s been in the last few days.’

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.