Another round of Premier League fixtures paved the way for abuse to flow towards certain players. Of course, the people behind this sort of vitriol have never stepped foot inside the stadium of the club they apparently support, but more on that later.

As I sat down to watch Liverpool face off against Cardiff in a potential banana skin away from home, I couldn't help but notice something that occurred in the second half. As Mohamed Salah earned a penalty for Liverpool, he picked up the ball in an obvious attempt to state that he wanted to take it. Vice Captain, James Milner, was having none of it and demanded that Salah give him the ball before going on to slot away a top notch penalty to give Liverpool an important 0-2 lead.

One of the issues with football being so easily accessible to a global audience is that it has led to fandom outside of the standard support of a particular club. Allegiances to particular players over a team isn't something I'm comfortable with as a football supporter because it goes against everything I enjoy about the game. Don't get me wrong, I have my favourites too, but not to the level that I support them above my team.

Being blinded by love for a particular player takes context out of actions undertaken by other members of the team. When James Milner took the ball away from Mohamed Salah, there was a huge uproar on social media about an apparent lack of respect for the Liverpool forward. Thousands of tweets from people claiming to be Egyptian were sent to James Milner telling him that he was an 'enemy of Egyptian people', 'selfish', and a 'disgrace' to reference just a few of the less x-rated messages. On Instagram, Milner's celebratory post was hijacked by messages of hate from supporters of Salah the individual, not Salah the Liverpool player.

In reality, Milner was absolutely right to take the ball away from Salah. Milner is Liverpool's designated penalty taker when he is on the pitch. He is the best penalty taker in the squad and so it makes sense for him to be the one to take it. When Salah picked up the ball, it was clear what was on his mind. Salah is a forward and, of course, forwards want to score goals and win the Golden Boot at the end of the season. That's cool, and it's great that he's hungry to break records, but the Golden Boot doesn't come close to the club potentially winning the Premier League. With just a 0-1 lead at the time of the incident, a missed penalty could have shifted momentum and led to Liverpool dropping points. This wasn't something that could be risked and, therefore, Milner taking the penalty gave Liverpool the best possible chance of making the game 0-2 and going on to take all 3 points.

I am certain that Salah is not thinking about Milner taking the ball away from him at this point in time. Why, then, do player fanatics believe it is okay to send abuse to Milner while still calling themselves Liverpool supporters? Those individuals are a disgrace and are not welcome as club supporters. Individual records are great, but no player is bigger than the club, and Salah will understand that fully. It's a shame that some of his fans have made fools of themselves over such a small incident. Sadly, this is just another moment of social media madness that shows the disconnect between match-going supporters and those who follow online. Without doubt, if you were to go to the match a start trying to abuse Milner in that way, you'd be dealt with pretty quickly and it wouldn't be pretty.

Having seen Sadio Mane receive a similar level of abuse when he didn't pass to Salah and instead decided to shoot, you know, as a forward tends to do, I don't think this kind of behaviour is going to go away quickly. Nevertheless, I am more than content to voice my opinion that these kinds of people are not welcome at Anfield. The club comes before anything else.