Salah Has Taken Selfishness To Another Level, Says Graeme Souness
Former Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness says Mohamed Salah’s quest to win the Premier League golden boot has seen the Egyptian take selfishness to another level.
Salah scored twice and set up another for Jordan Henderson as Liverpool defeated Brighton and Hove Albion 3-1 on Wednesday to record their 30th Premier League win of the season.
The 28-year-old’s brace took him to 19 goals for the season, just three behind leading goalscorer Jamie Vardy.
Salah won the golden boot in the 2017/2018 season and again shared the honour with teammate Sadio Mane and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the last campaign as all three Africans finished on 22 goals.
Earlier on this season, Mane publicly showed his disgust towards Salah when the latter failed to pass to him on a number of occasions in a 3-0 win at Burnley.
Despite Salah’s impressive display against Graham Potter’s men on Wednesday, Souness feels the former AS Roma and Chelsea winger could have fed teammates in better positions rather than go for glory himself on a number of occasions.
"He was at it tonight from the first minute," the former Liverpool midfielder told Sky Sports.
"I think it [the Golden Boot] is important to him.
"You’ve seen his reaction when people weren’t finding him late on in the game in the last third.
"He was shooting at every opportunity, and his teammates will not have been happy with him on two or three occasions.
"But he’s always selfish. I think tonight he was super selfish. He really wants his Golden Boot."
"They’ve won the league, so he’s done his bit for the team, he’s played his part, he’s got the goals, he’s been fabulous, and he wants that Golden Boot," added Souness.
"And he thinks he’s in a team that creates chances, so he thinks it’s very much still on for him."
Asked whether all great goalscorers need to have that greed, Souness added: "They’ve got an element of it - they’ve all got an element of it.
"But I think he takes it to another level. I think Mane has fallen out with him in the past over occasions where he feels he should have passed to him to score a goal and he shot himself.
"So I think there is an element in all goalscorers that they’re greedy at times, but I think he takes it to another level."
