Troy Deeney feels Arne Slot cannot do what he wants with Mohamed Salah as he’s already proven his toys will be “out the pram” and he’s refusing to “take accountability” for poor form.

Liverpoolare on their worst run of form in 71 years. In their last seven Premier League games, the defending champions have lost six times, and have also twice been beaten in the Champions League this term.

The latest of those losses was the worst, as Slot’s side followed consecutive 3-0 Premier League losses against Manchester City and Nottingham Forest by being beaten 4-1 by PSV Eindhoven.

It was the fourth European game in a row in which icon Salah has failed to score or assist – a surprising lack of form after he was directly involved in nearly 60 goals last season – but Deeney feels Slot isn’t able to drop him having seen what happened the last time he did so.

He said on CBS Sports: “Last year, we decided Salah was the best, he was not looking old, give him three years. They wanted to give him two years, remember that was the argument, he wanted three.

“When he gets all the adulation for the things he was doing last year, now the spotlight is what he’s not doing. He’s in this situation where he’s not performing but he’s not doing interviews. He’s not taking accountability of going: ‘Don’t let Curtis Jones do it, I’ll go and stand out’.

“He’s been dropped once against Frankfurt and deleted all of his Instagram posts. Ok, so arguably the best player Liverpool have ever had, if I [Arne Slot] don’t treat him the way he wants to, he pulls his toys out of the pram.

“Now what do you do? It sets a precedent to the rest of the people. I’m not questioning his professionalism because you can see how he looks after himself, but you can’t put him on the bench because he acts this way and spits his toys out of the pram.”

The game Salah did not start, against Frankfurt, was arguably Liverpool’s best of the season. They won 5-1 and struggling summer signing Florian Wirtz contributed two assists from the right-wing.

But he has hardly been given a sniff there otherwise as Salah always frequents the position, despite currently not seeming he’s nearly as deserving of the consistent starts that he’s proved he should be getting throughout his Liverpool career.

He has been called out for not addressing the media amid Liverpool’s form slump, with 24-year-old Jones instead doing it against the PSV loss.

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Jones said: “I don’t know, I don’t have the answers, I’m the same as everyone else. It’s unacceptable to be honest, as I said, I don’t even have the words, I’m past being angry and sad, I’m at the point now where I don’t have the words.

“It’s hard to find the words, I’m a player and a fan, I’m seeing it like this, I haven’t experienced a team play like this bad and results like this.

“At the end of the day, we still have that badge on our chest, until that badge goes, we’re always going to fight, try get this team to where it needs to be and show why Liverpool is the best team in the world.”

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