Mikel Obi blasts Jamie Carragher over Mo Salah’s reaction to Liverpool bench role

Former Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi has hit out at Jamie Carragher for his comments on Mohamed Salah’s decision to lash out over his lack of playing time at Liverpool, Soccernet.ng reports.

The Liverpool winger scored 34 goals and provided 23 assists in 52 games across all competitions for the Reds last season, but his form this season has seen him struggle to replicate such numbers.

Across board, Liverpool are out of their depth despite spending over £446m in the summer to secure the services of Jeremie Frimpong, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Florian Wirtz, and Milos Kerkez.

After benching Salah for three straight games, Arne Slot left the Egyptian out of Liverpool’s squad against Inter Milan, a game the Reds won.

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The 33-year-old aired his displeasure to the media about how he felt he had been unfairly treated by the manager.

Jamie Carragher was livid with the direction Salah chose to go. The CBS Sports Golazo pundit revealed the one-time UEFA Super Cup winner threw the club under the bus.

Carragher went further to state that Salah was a player known for his failure with Chelsea before his fortunes turned around at the Merseyside Stadium. The 47-year-old also highlighted Salah’s inability to win a title with the Egyptian national team.

Mikel Obi hits out at Jamie Carragher, again

Salah’s goal contribution last season saw him placed 4th in the 2025 Ballon d’Or rankings, but Carragher revealed his fears about Mo Salah not winning the Ballon d’Or due to Egypt’s absence from a major tournament.

Micah Richards and Daniel Sturridge, in response, told Carragher that the AFCON tournament features Egypt, and, therefore, it is a major tournament, on par with the Euros and Copa America competitions. However, the ex-Liverpool man scoffed in disbelief, which infuriated the one-time AFCON winner.

With Carragher crossing the line with another African footballer again, the ex-Chelsea man obliterated the 2005 UEFA Champions League winner.

“To always, for some reason, criticise African football and African players. We’re talking about Liverpool here, about the Premier League, and you have somebody sit there in the studio criticising Mo Salah and saying he’s never won the African Cup of Nations, criticising him,” the one-time UEFA Champions League winner said on the Obi One Podcast.

“He’s qualified for two World Cups but hasn’t won the African Cup of Nations. What has that got to do with the Premier League?

“What has that got to do with what we’re talking about? He thinks that African football or African players do not deserve to be at the highest stage of World football.

“Why does he talk about Mo Salah’s failure at Chelsea? People fail. It’s about how they get up. Look at what he’s done for Liverpool!

“You learn more from failure; you get better from failing. It’s how you get up, and Mo Salah got up, got stronger and became a better player.

“For somebody to criticise a young player and call that a failure, especially coming from someone who’s nowhere near what Salah has achieved.

“He [Carragher] did not win the Premier League, nor did he win anything with his national team. Abandoned his national team, honestly, because he wasn’t playing, and now he’s criticising someone for speaking out that he wants to play when he quit because he wasn’t playing.

“Mo Salah doesn’t want to quit when it’s tough. He wants to get the team out of the sticky patch. That’s who you call a true leader, a true champion.

“Do I condone what Salah did? Not all of it, but has he earned the right to say he wants to play? Yes,” Mikel concluded.

Mikel isn’t the first ex-Nigerian International to jump to Salah’s defence. Sunday Oliseh also told Thierry Henry to back off over the comments he made about the former AS Roma winger.