Wayne Rooney names Liverpool icon as PL Player of the Season…but no other Reds make his top 5 | OneFootball

Wayne Rooney has put his career allegiances to one side by naming a Liverpool star as his Premier League player of the season, but he didn’t find room for anyone else from the champions-elect in his top five.

It’s all but mathematically certain that the trophy will be going to Anfield – it could even be confirmed as soon as tomorrow night – and attention may soon turn to the recipients of the various individual prizes on offer.

Whenever the PFA Team of the Year is named, it’d be reasonable to assume that, with the Reds a massive 13 points clear at the summit going into the final month of the campaign, Arne Slot’s side will be healthily represented.

Rooney names his top 5 players of the Premier League season

In a feature for Amazon Prime Video Sport, Rooney was asked to name his top five players of the 2024/25 Premier League, and it was a Liverpool icon who claimed top spot.

The former Everton and Manchester United striker said: “My number one pick would be Mo Salah. I think over the last few years his performances has been excellent and this season again it looks like he’s going to spearhead Liverpool to the title.”

However, the 39-year-old snubbed each of the Egyptian’s teammates, with the rest of his top five comprising (in descending order from second to fifth) Alexander Isak, Cole Palmer, Morgan Gibbs-White and Bruno Fernandes.

(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

How could Rooney overlook Van Dijk and other Liverpool stars?

First of all, we certainly won’t disagree with Rooney’s pick for player of the season! With Salah likely to scoop the Golden Boot despite scoring just twice in the Premier League since the beginning of March (27 goals and counting), he’s clearly been a massive factor in Liverpool’s impending title triumph.

It’s not just his goal output which has been immense, either, with the 32-year-old also chipping in with 18 top-flight assists, needing just two more to become just the second player (after Thierry Henry in 2002/03) to reach 20 for both goals and assists in a single campaign in the division under its current guise.

However, how Rooney has opted for Palmer and Fernandes ahead of the colossal Virgil van Dijk – or even the magnificent midfield duo of Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister – is beyond us.

The Chelsea forward started the season in blistering fashion but hasn’t netted in any competition since mid-January, while the Portuguese midfielder – admittedly impressive of late – is the captain of a Manchester United team who could plausibly finish as the lowest-placed club not to be relegated.

To give them the nod ahead of Liverpool’s consistently brilliant captain is just baffling…or perhaps Rooney couldn’t bring himself to include a second Reds player in his top five if he made Salah his first-place pick.