Paul Scholes has hit out at “ugly” footballer Mohamed Salah amid his poor form for Liverpool this season, hailing him as “the worst, best footballer in the world”.

Having driven Liverpool to the title last season with 29 goals and 18 assists in the Premier League, the 33-year-old is suffering a dramatic downturn this term and was dropped by Arne Slot for the Reds’ trip to Frankfurt on Wednesday on the back of defeat to Manchester United.

READ MORE: Salah throws down gauntlet to Slot after ‘strop’ and petty reaction to Liverpool snub

Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai scored for Liverpool in a 5-1 rout which saw Salah come off the bench for the last 15 minutes.

The Egyptian hardly staked his claim for his place back in the starting XI for their clash with Brentford on Saturday after shooting from a tight angle rather than playing a simple square ball for Florian Wirtz to score his first Liverpool goal.

And Ian Wright, speaking on the Stick to Footballpodcast, claimed Salah is suffering as a result of Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool for Real Madrid in the summer.

Wright said: “No, he’s not playing well. If you haven’t got someone like Trent [Alexander-Arnold] to release him when he’s in that phase where he’s free, where you got someone who can hit him straight away, then he looks exactly what he looks like now.

“He looks like a passenger!” ??

Liverpool need their star man firing, can Mo Salah get back to his best? ?? pic.twitter.com/lZABPWo8FU

— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) October 23, 2025

“They’ve taken that away from Mo Salah – he can’t get that ball early. He can’t get that great ball from Trent, and he can’t go and do his thing. When you look at him now, he just looks like he’s a passenger.”

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And Paul Scholes said – ahead of the Frankfurt game – that Slot has little choice to leave Salah out of his team if he’s not scoring, claiming the 33-year-old is an “ugly” footballer, who often looks like “the best, worst footballer in the world”.

Scholes said: “I always thought, even when he was scoring goals, he looks ugly at times. The ball bouncing off his legs. He does some of the worst stuff you’ll see from a centre-forward.

“And if he’s stopped scoring goals he [Arne Slot] is gonna have to leave him out at some point. He can be the worst, best footballer in the world.”

Salah threw down the gauntlet to Slotthrough his reaction to being dropped for the Frankfurt game, reportedly leaving the pitch in a “strop” before making some petty changes to his social media profileto hint at his frustration.