Ruud Gullit says Mohamed Salah “cheats” at Liverpool, because he doesn’t work as hard as his Reds team-mates.
But the former Chelsea ace wasn’t being negative in his assessment of the Egyptian, instead he explained it’s what makes him so good.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool are known for their heavy-metal, high-press, attacking football.
The Reds are more dangerous off the ball than on it, and are always looking at ways in which they can hit their opposition on the break.
While out of possession Liverpool cover every blade of grass, closing players down and applying pressure to whoever happens to receive the ball.
But Gullit reckons Salah doesn’t press quite as intensely as his Liverpool team-mates.
Instead, in a similar way to what Lionel Messi does at Barcelona, he “cheats”.
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“The only one who is maybe less hard working of everybody is Salah, he cheats sometimes,” said Gullit on beIN SPORTS.“If you look at [Sadio] Mane and [Roberto] Firmino, there is a difference.
“But he is the one who can cheat a little bit, but they still do hard work.
“You see him doing it [going backwards] but he cheats. It’s in a way ‘I am going to tackle you’ but he doesn’t.
“It’s just to be there, and I think Klopp has him in a way where he says ‘Just go 10 yards backwards, get in your position, that’s easier, but get back in your position, don’t stay up front’.
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“In the past he would sometimes just stay there, wandering about.
“If you see for instance Messi, he wanders around all the time. It is cheating. That is his way, it’s what he does. He wanders around and all the time you think ‘When is this coming?’
“I have had this discussion a lot with strikers. Do you want to play against a guy who runs all the time, or do you want to play against someone who stands still and then does his thing?
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“Standing still is the worst. So that’s why I say to strikers ‘Don’t run so much, just stay still, wait for the right moment and then accelerate.’
“That is the worst thing. And of course now with Liverpool, he [Salah] goes back into midfield, so then you don’t have anybody and you have to look around to see who is coming forward.
“And Messi has done this for a very long time.”
