Graeme Souness hasn't minced his words about Liverpool star Mohamed Salah, branding him the 'most selfish player' he has witnessed. The Liverpool icon has made headlines with a scathing critique of the Egyptian, accusing the forward of 'disappearing' in challenging matches, which results in the team getting 'bullied'.

Salah's tension with Liverpool boss Jürgen Klopp was evident during their 2-2 stalemate at West Ham, where Salah's frustration over not starting boiled over, leading to a heated exchange on the touchline. Darwin Núñez had to intervene as Salah geared up to enter the fray in the second half.

Despite being the Reds' leading goal contributor this season with 24 goals and 13 assists in 41 appearances across all competitions, Salah's recent performances have dipped. With only one goal in his last six outings, a mere penalty in Liverpool's Europa League exit against Atalanta, questions are being raised.

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After being benched for games against Fulham and West Ham and failing to leave his mark in the Merseyside derby loss to Everton a result that all but dashed Liverpool's Premier League title hopes under Klopp, talk has ramped up about a potential departure when the transfer window reopens. Souness, a stalwart of the club, seems to be in favor of such a move.

"I believe Mohamed Salah is off and leaving Liverpool. He has been fabulous for Liverpool, but if he leaves to the Saudi Pro League then he'll be the biggest star in that part of the world," Souness said on William Hill's Up Front podcast.

"He no doubt has an exceptionally large opinion of himself, and he'll have been angry at not starting the game against West Ham last week. I think the situation with Klopp was a reaction to only being brought on with 10 minutes to go it was more Salah than it was Klopp in that confrontation.

"Salah is the most selfish player I have ever witnessed. Even prior to that game, whenever Klopp takes him off, he is never happy about it. That is what you want from your players, if you take them off on two goals, they should want to stay on to score a third. When Sadio Mané was there, they'd fall out all the time."

Salah has 210 goals in 346 games for Liverpool, putting him fifth on the club's all-time top scorers list. He is six goals ahead of Darwin Núñez this season, but Souness insists that the 31-year-old has a bad habit of drifting out of matches when his team is struggling and most needs him.

"When the going gets tough and another player puts it on him, Salah will disappear from a game," Souness remarked. "Last season at Old Trafford, Lisandro Martínez went through him early on, and for the rest of the game Salah was looking over his shoulder for Martinez he doesn't like that side of the game. He'll never get himself hurt.

"It ties into the fact that in the last two weeks, Liverpool have shown something that I didn't think they were capable of, they're getting bullied. It happened when they got beaten 3-0 at Anfield by Atalanta and it happened against Everton at Goodison Park not so long ago.

"Everton had too much passion and aggression and Liverpool got bullied again. You have to be mean and angry to play football, but for whatever reason that has gone completely from Liverpool's game. That is the difference between winning and losing matches. As a Liverpool player, if there's one game where you need to turn up with aggression and fight, it is against Everton. Of all the games not to turn up, to perform like that against Everton is unacceptable."

Liverpool.com says: Salah doesn't always behave perfectly but he is also Liverpool's best forward by a distance. He has been off-form for a while now but the expectation is that he will stay this summer. That would be the right call given how important he is.