‘Now I don’t have to defend much, tactics are quite different’
LONDON: With 28 goals in 34 matches in this Premier League season, Liverpool forward Mo Salah has been one of the pillars of strength during the club’s historic title-winning campaign in the Premier League this season. While Liverpool scored a 5-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday night to win their second Premier League and 20th top flight title with four games still to go, Salah is at the top of the goal-scorers list and in the race to win his fourth Golden Boot award.
While Salah won all the three previous Golden Boot awards under Jurgen Klopp, the Egyptian forward was deployed on defensive duties by Klopp too. Salah has opened up on how new manager Arne Slot ‘resting him defensively’ has helped him make the difference for the team.
“He (Slot) is very honest. The Dutch are quite tough but he made our lives easier. I am glad that we have won it here (at Anfield). You can see the numbers. Now I don’t have to defend much. The tactics are quite different. I said ‘as long as you rest me defensively I will provide offensively’, so I am glad that I did. He listened a lot and you can see the numbers. When you play in the Premier League you have to defend but I said that I can gamble and somehow I can make a difference. My number of assists shows that you can create chances as well,” Salah told Sky Sports post the win.
Liverpool had last won the Premier league title in 2020 when they won 32 matches out of 38 matches under Klopp. It was the team’s first Premier League title in 30 years and Klopp’s first and only Premier League title. The German, who had joined the club in 2015, exited the club last year. Salah had joined Liverpool in 2017 and under Klopp, the Egyptian scored a total of 155 goals for the club including the three Golden Boots awards.
In 2020, when Liverpool won the Premier League title, it happened in front of an empty stadium and the 32-year-old counted this year’s title win as a special win. “Incredible, incredible. To win the Premier League here with the fans is something special. You saw that today and you saw it every game. This is way better 100 per cent. Without Sadio(Mane), without Jurgen (Klopp), without Bobby (Firmino), without everybody it feels more special, with the fans. But you know, you have a different group now, a different manager and you show you are able to do it again – it’s something special.” added Salah.
Slot too felt the win was special with the presence of fans. “The only moment I was emotional today was when we arrived at the stadium to see what it meant for the fans, for these people. For us to have a chance to win it was really special but we still had to do it. Everyone inside that bus felt, if the fans are with us like that, it was impossible to lose this game of football.” said Slot post the match.
Agencies