Jurgen Klopp has claimed that Mohamed Salah is one of Liverpool’s best players of all time.
Salah has smashed a plethora of records since arriving at Anfield in 2017. Having plundered 186 goals and won every trophy going, he’s a modern day Liverpool icon.
And, speaking to liverpoolfc.com about the decision to overlook Mo for Virgil van Dijk for the Reds captaincy, Klopp said he thinks so too.
“And the same is for Mo [that he’s a natural leader], captain of Egypt, one of the best players to ever play for this club,” said the Liverpool boss.
“But strikers are different, strikers have to be different – we all benefit from that. So we need him as a role model, we need Mo as the one who leads the line, if you want, who is the first to press, who’s the first to all these things on the pitch.
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“And off the pitch, he’s smart, everybody loves him, everybody wants to have him around, so for us he’s super, super-important.”
Jurgen crowns his Egyptian King
There’s absolutely no doubt that Salah is one of Liverpool’s best players of all time. In all likelihood the Egyptian will hit the 200 goal mark for the Reds in the coming campaign.
He would be just the fifth man to do that, and the first since Ian Rush.
On top of that, Salah has been pivotal in the winning of six different major trophies while at Anfield. He has the chance to top that with a seventh in Liverpool’s Europa League campaign in 2023/24.
With plenty of Liverpool’s most important players of the Jurgen Klopp era so far having now left, it’s a good time to take stock of things.
The likes of Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane, Jordan Henderson and Fabinho are already assured of legendary status in this most remarkable of periods. But it’s the man who has so far outlasted them all – Salah – who will likely go down as the face of it.
If he can lead Liverpool into a glorious new era under Klopp, he may yet go down as the face of another as well.
To some, it will be a shame that he won’t do that as captain of the team. But as Jurgen points out, he has different qualities that are needed elsewhere. Leave the leading to Virgil and you focus on sticking the ball in the net, Mo.
As legends depart around him, we must face the fact that this Liverpool icon will too one day depart. But not yet. Let’s appreciate him while we can.