In what could lead to a heavy exchange of words between two former Liverpool FC icons, John Aldridge has hit back at Graeme Souness for his recent criticism of Mohammad Salah’s penalty winning antics during last weekend’s game against West Ham United.
The Egyptian winger had tumbled down in the 18-yard box following a challenge from Arthur Masuku, but Salah’s actions had been deemed to be a poor piece of conduct from the ex-Liverpool FC skipper Souness.
But Aldridge has jumped to the defence of the Reds’ star forward, with the Irishman choosing to lay blame on Masuku instead for his silly challenge on Salah inside the box while speaking to the Liverpool Echo.
“First of all, I’d say the defender is naive for kicking Salah in the box and he deserves to be punished for a challenge that was always likely to end in a penalty.
“During my career, I won so many penalties due to the stupidity of defenders who continually lunged in on me and gave the referees a decision to make.
“Yet week after week, we still see them ploughing into opponents in the box in a reckless fashion and so long as they do that, players are entitled to go down and take the penalties.
“It’s not cheating, it’s not diving and anyone who says it is doesn’t understand football.”
Aldridge was defiant in his support for the Liverpool FC attacker, and the Egyptian international would surely take solace in the former Reds’ fan-favourite publicly voicing his approval for Salah’s conduct whilst on the pitch, something that has come under the scanner in recent weeks.
