‘Unbelievable player’: James Milner jokes he ‘should criticise’ his fantastic Liverpool teammate more

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James Milner joked after Liverpool 1-0 Man City that he should criticise ‘fantastic’ Mohamed Salah more often. Maybe the Egyptian would score even more goals.

Mohamed Salah has had plenty of stick this season – even facing accusations that he’s let his foot off the gas a little. Graeme Souness suggested he was ‘in his armchair’ for Liverpool since signing a new contract.

But the questions don’t stop there. Salah has been accused of being the Reds’ worst player this season, and has been told he’s the ‘most worrying’ at the club.

The forward couldn’t really have responded to those accusations any better. He came off the bench against Rangers to score the quickest hattrick in Champions League history. Salah then found the winner against Manchester City to hand them their first defeat all season.

It led to James Milner joking after the game that he should criticise his teammate more often. We might see even more goals from him then.

“He does it time and time again and sometimes I think I should criticise him more because anytime he gets criticism he’ll score!” Milner told Premier League Productions. “He responds so well. An unbelievable player, he’s fantastic.”

Milner jokes he should criticise Salah

Honestly, it’s less the criticism that’s fired-up Salah and more a mix of time and tactics. In truth, Salah was never playing that badly – he was just finding himself creating chances more than scoring them.

But Jurgen Klopp made a massive change in midweek when he pushed Salah into a striker role and away from the wing. Suddenly, he had all the space of the pitch to play in. He had a strike partner pulling defenders away and letting him isolate players. Salah was able to run the channels and offer a constant threat, not worrying about linking play.

The result against Rangers was a six-minute hattrick. We then saw Salah constantly worry Manchester City today, finishing with several chances.

Playing him through the middle in a 4-4-2 should be the future this season and it’s a future that currently looks very bright. We can’t imagine there will be much more criticism of Salah for the remainder of the season.