Wayne Rooney Calls for Mohamed Salah's Omission from Final Game
Wayne Rooney has never been shy of a hard truth. This time, his sights are on Anfield – and on Mohamed Salah.
On The Wayne Rooney Show, the Manchester United great called on Arne Slot to take the most ruthless decision available to him: leave Salah out of Liverpool’s final game of the season against Brentford. Not on the bench. Nowhere near the stadium.
Rooney’s verdict? Salah has crossed a line.
Rooney: Salah has “dropped the grenade”
The flashpoint came with Salah’s social media post calling for a return to the “heavy metal” football that defined the Jurgen Klopp era, a message widely read as a jab at Slot’s current approach. For Rooney, the subtext was obvious and unacceptable.
"I find it sad at the end of what he’s done and what he’s achieved at Liverpool," Rooney said. "It’s not the point for him to come out and aim another dig at Slot. He wants to play heavy metal football, so he’s basically saying he wants Jurgen Klopp football. Now I don’t think Mo Salah can cope with that type of football anymore. I think his legs have gone to play at that high tempo and high intensity."
Then came the sharpest line.
"He's almost just dropped the grenade and said he doesn't trust and believe in Arne Slot and almost thrown his teammates who are going to be there next season and let them have to deal with that as well and put them into a position."
This isn’t an isolated incident either. Earlier in the season, Salah was dropped after accusing Slot and Liverpool of throwing him "under the bus" over his lack of starts. Twice now, the winger has gone public. Twice, in Rooney’s eyes, he has undercut his manager.
A legend’s legacy under scrutiny
Salah’s place in Liverpool history is not in doubt. He has scored 257 goals for the club, delivered a Premier League title, and last season hit 29 league goals in a campaign that ended with the trophy back at Anfield.
This season has been different. Sharply so.
Just 12 goals in 40 appearances across all competitions, as Liverpool stumble towards a likely fifth-place finish. The numbers have dipped, and Rooney believes the outbursts are no coincidence.
"I think Salah's trying to vindicate himself and make himself feel better because he's had a very poor season," Rooney claimed. "So I think he's been very selfish in what he's done in the two occasions. It's a shame and fans will be on his side, but I think when you look deeper into it and having been in a dressing room in a similar situation to that as well, Mo Salah knows exactly what he's doing."
In Rooney’s reading, this is not frustration spilling over. It is calculated. It shifts blame away from the player and onto the manager and the system, just as Liverpool’s title defence has unravelled.
Ferguson’s lesson for Slot
Rooney’s solution is drawn straight from his own past.
He recalled clashing with Sir Alex Ferguson and paying the price in brutal fashion: left out of Ferguson’s final game at Old Trafford after a disagreement. No sentiment, no compromise, just a manager reinforcing the hierarchy.
"If I was Arne Slot, I’d have him nowhere near the stadium in the last game," Rooney insisted. "I had it with Alex Ferguson. I had a disagreement and fall out and at Alex Ferguson’s last game at Old Trafford, he left me out of the squad for that reason. That’s your manager. You can’t publicly disrespect him twice the way he has and get away with it."
Then came the line aimed directly at Slot’s authority.
"And that’s where if I was Arne Slot, I’d have to pull rank and just say, listen, you’re not coming anywhere near the place on Saturday, whether you like it or not. I really doubt he will do it, but I think he should."
Rooney accepts that Salah, one of the defining players of the Premier League era, deserves recognition as he heads for the exit. But not, he argues, at the expense of the manager’s control.
"Of course he deserves a good send off but does he deserve it just for this? It’s the second time he’s done it. It’s just a shame to see one of the great icon of Premier League players leave the Premier League probably in this situation."
Anfield’s fear factor fading
The Salah storm arrives against a bleak backdrop. Liverpool’s season has collapsed with startling speed. The title defence that once looked robust has dissolved, and the team’s energy has gone with it.
Rooney sees the problem as more than tactical. It’s emotional. It’s in the stands.
"I think that's the biggest change for me where you go to Anfield, the first thing you want to do is quieten the crowd. But I think actually by Liverpool not pressing they're quietening the crowd down themselves and frustrating the Liverpool fans," he said.
The famous Anfield roar, once fuelled by relentless pressing and suffocating intensity, now feels dulled. The team sit off, the tempo drops, and so does the noise. The fear factor that once defined big nights on Merseyside has thinned.
Rooney went further, hinting at something more worrying inside the dressing room.
"I don't feel right or good saying this, some players look like they've downed tools and that's a big problem if you see that or you feel that for the manager."
Time, pressure and a decisive call
Despite his criticism, Rooney is not calling for Slot’s head. He remains torn on the manager’s future, pointing back to last season’s title as a reason for patience.
"I’m quite split in should he go or should he stay because he won the league last season, I think he deserves a bit more time, in terms of what we’ve seen this season."
So the picture is complicated. A fading title defence. A manager under scrutiny but, in Rooney’s view, deserving of time. A fanbase growing restless. And at the centre of it all, a club icon whose words and form have dragged his farewell into controversy.
For Rooney, the route out is clear: Slot must assert himself, even if it means denying Salah a final Anfield moment. Discipline over sentiment. Authority over nostalgia.
Liverpool’s season has already slipped away. The real question now is what kind of dressing room Slot will walk back into when the next one begins.
