Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk have so far failed to justify the new, bumper contracts handed to them by Liverpool in 2025.
Rewind 12 months, and all the talk surrounding the Reds was of whether either legend would stay at Anfield beyond the 2024/25 campaign.
Both Salah and Van Dijk were absolutely crucial to Liverpool winning the Premier League, so much so that it had looked like an easy decision to renew their deals.
Which Liverpool player are you most concerned about?
There were some AWFUL performances vs Bournemouth
Things have gone badly wrong since fresh terms were agreed in April, however, leaving many Liverpool fans to wonder whether the club might have made an expensive mistake.
The issues were laid bare against Bournemouth on Saturday when Van Dijk arguably had his worst game for the Reds while Salah continued to look a shadow of his glorious former self. Taking to Rousing The Kop’s new TalkingPoints platform after the 3-2 defeat, Liverpool supporters unanimously picked which player had the worse performance.
Liverpool fans not happy with Virgil van Dijk
At the time of writing, almost 900 Liverpool fans have voted on which player put in the worst display against Bournemouth.
Sadly for Van Dijk, he has come out as the clear leader, winning more than 450 votes – over 50% of the overall poll.
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Sadly, Salah is easily the closest player to his captain, picking up over 300 votes at 35% of the total.
Alisson Becker, Alexis Mac Allister and Hugo Ekitike were the other options nominated by RTK, although none of the trio were seemingly in too many supporters’ crosshairs following the late defeat.
Mac Allister has been a bit of a scapegoat for much of the season and was the choice of 56 supporters, with Alisson being picked 33 times and Ekitike only 12.
Who was Liverpool’s worst player as they fell to a pathetic loss against Bournemouth?
Mohamed Salah does not escape criticism
Van Dijk was clearly the subject of supporters’ frustrations this weekend, a rather rare occurrence during his eight years with the club.
“VVD was a lost sheep. Poor defending, gifting Bournemouth the 1st goal,” said one fan. “VVD, got to expect better,” added another
“What is going on in Virgil’s head for the first goal?” someone else questioned. “He should have put the ball in row Z then Gomez gets injured trying to cover his mistake.”
But while Van Dijk was rightly criticised for his lackadaisical approach, fans also took aim at Salah.
“Mo Salah he was a legend but age has caught up with him,” said one. “Salah he is not giving anything to the team,” claimed another.
These two will forever remain Liverpool legends whatever they go on to do next but, for now, supporters are clearly concerned that they have hit a steep, irreversible decline.
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