Cook hits back over Salah criticism
Bournemouth defender Steve Cook says the criticism leveled at Liverpool's Mohamed Salah this season has been unfair, with the Egyptian "one of the best players in the world".
Cook was part of the Bournemouth defence that was terrorised by Salah at the weekend, with the forward helping himself to a sensational hat-trick to put his side top of the Premier League.
Following his sensation return last season, the fact that Salah scored just three times in his first eight league games of this campaign saw him criticised in some quarters, but Cook is adamant those comments weren't warranted.
"He's come under unfair criticism this year but he's obviously worked extremely hard to get to where he is now," Cook told 'Sky Sports News'.
"His willingness to run in behind and his work rate really stood out. You can be an extremely talented footballer but if you're not willing to work and put in the dogged performances you're not going to get anywhere.
"I didn't cope with him at all, which is really frustrating because you want to perform well against the best players in the world. It was an extremely difficult day for myself.
"We probably gave him chances that we shouldn't have but he was there to take them so fair play to him."
Next up for Cook and Bournemouth is a trip to Molineux to face Wolves, with the centre-back expecting a difficult game.
"They look a very good team. They're very attacking and they've come into the Premier League and played the football they did in the Championship," he explained.
"They've really come in with a lot of confidence and won some good games and responded well to defeats as well. So it's going to be a really tough day.
"I see resemblances of us with them.
"The way they pass the ball, the way they attack. The manager's stuck to his guns because sometimes you get called to change the way you play and get questioned whether you can do the same in the Championship as you can in the Premier League and along with us they've proved that they can."