Former Liverpool star Dejan Lovren has hit out at the way the English media treated Mohamed Salah during his final season at Anfield – and also launched a blistering attack on Arne Slot.
Lovren, 36, grew close with Salah during their time together at the club and they have remained good friends despite the Croatian representing Zenit Saint Petersburg, Lyon and PAOK since his departure in 2020.
Salah endured a difficult final campaign with the Reds, scoring just seven times in the league after winning the Premier League’s Player of the Season award in 2024-25.
He also had a high profile fallout with Slot and confirmed in March that he would be leaving the club this summer a year before his contract ended.
Throughout the season, Salah made several digs towards the former Liverpool boss, leading to his conduct and form being criticised by pundits, including Jamie Carragher – who called him ‘selfish’ and suggested that he was no longer a guaranteed starter for the club.
And Lovren has now jumped to Salah’s defence and criticised the way the Egyptian was treated over the past 12 months.
Former Liverpool star Dejan Lovren has hit out at the way Mohamed Salah was treated by the English media during his final season at the club (pictured in 2020 after winning the league)
Lovren took aim at Reds legend Jamie Carragher, who he accused of ‘performing on TV’
‘The way they treated him this season is not harsh,’ he told WinWin. ‘It’s disgusting. Why didn’t they talk about him like this for the past eight or nine years? Tell me… OK, one season, and then he’s the target again. There are so many other issues.
‘I mean, he’s being really heavily criticised. Some pundits do it just to attract attention, maybe because they haven’t succeeded in other areas of their lives, so now they need to perform well.
‘Sometimes people put Mo in the spotlight, and then the easy part is, like I said… especially Carragher, he says whatever he wants. I always said he should tell him this to his face, say all these things to Mo to his face. He’ll never say that. Because I know he never will, because he never said it to me.
‘He’s talked badly about me too, but he never said that to me anyway. You know, he’s just performing on TV and he gets paid for it, so he needs to perform this way.
‘But whatever, it just hurts me because I know deep down who Mo is. Because he’s a really good guy inside, with a good mind and a good heart. I honestly don’t understand. He deserves so much better, you guys.’
In March, Carragher courted controversy when he didn’t name Salah in his top five players in Liverpool history, instead preferring Ian Rush, John Barnes, Graeme Souness, Sir Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard.
When pressed on that, Lovren insisted he ‘doesn’t take Carragher too seriously’ – and suggested that the former defender was wrong in his rankings.
The Croatian was also heavily critical of Slot, who was sacked last week following a difficult season.
Back in December, Salah claimed he had ‘no relationship’ with the Dutchman and last month he aimed another dig at him in a bombshell social media post.
Lovren insisted that the Egyptian ‘would have stayed 100 per cent’ if Slot had been dismissed earlier, and added that he was the main reason for the forward’s exit this summer.
‘I don’t think it’s the management (that pushed Salah to leave),’ Lovren said. ‘I think it’s just one person, and I think it’s just the manager.
‘They didn’t have a good relationship. Let’s put it simply. With Klopp, he had a really good relationship. It wasn’t always perfect, but they knew each other very well, let’s say that too, and they trusted each other, they liked each other, and Mo gave everything on the pitch for Klopp, and Klopp gave him that trust.
‘But (with Slot) it was the opposite. It’s that simple, and everyone knows it because when you look at the previous eight or nine seasons, he did really well.
‘Then in the last season… now people will say, “oh yes, but he also did well in the first year Slot came in,” but I don’t think that was because of him – I think he just took over the team as it was.’
Lovren also claimed Slot is the only reason why Salah is leaving the club this summer
Lovren’s remarkable criticism continued with him aiming a dig at how the club handled the drama between Salah and Slot, and echoed the forward’s thoughts that he had been ‘thrown under the bus’.
He similarly suggested Salah had been made a scapegoat for Liverpool’s struggles and insisted that no-one was there to ‘protect and support him’ when he needed it.
Lovren continued: ‘There are other players who should also take responsibility and say, “yes, this is my fault”, but you know, some players never came forward.
‘There was mismanagement; internally, they didn’t handle it well. They didn’t handle it well. Even if you have some problems, you have to talk about it in the dressing room, and like I said, Mo never felt that support.
‘He was always the front-page headline, “Ah, it’s Mohamed Salah, don’t be surprised.” I mean… it’s a deep-seated issue.’
