Former Newcastle United striker Alan Shearer has said that Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah’s alleged dive against Crystal Palace was ’embarrassing’.
Salah scored twice for Liverpool in a tense 4-3 win over Crystal Palace at Anfield on Saturday but has received significant criticism for going down rather easy in the box after an attempted challenge from Mamadou Sakho.
Liverpool were not awarded the penalty while Salah escaped the incident without a booking and Shearer feels he’s starting to garner an unwanted reputation for how easy he falls to the ground upon contact.
“I think he got away with one against Newcastle but that is a dive,” Shearer said on Match of the Day.
“He feels a little bit of contact then recognises it a second or two later and goes down and it’s a dive. It’s pretty embarrassing really. Not good at all to see that.
“You can see the Palace players are going absolutely berserk and rightfully so. They accuse him of diving and they’re right.”
Meanwhile former Ireland international and Everton midfielder Kevin Kilbane said that Salah’s dive was pathetic.
"It's pathetic."
"Salah is messing with his reputation."#LIVCRY pic.twitter.com/kSFvQofeS7
— Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) January 19, 2019
Meanwhile Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was a bit more praising in his appraisal of his star player and has said that Salah is benefiting from the style of football that Liverpool are playing this season.
“He’s a world-class player,” said Klopp after the match.
“It worked really well bringing him from Roma, it was absolutely a win-win situation. He benefits a lot from the way the team is playing and his scoring desire and being in the right positions is a really rare skill, which is why everyone is looking for players like this. It’s just fantastic.”
