Salah urges Liverpool to be ruthless

LONDON: Mohamed Salah has told his Liverpool teammates they must reproduce their Champions League form in the Premier League to revive their flagging tilt at the title.
Salah and striker Roberto Firmino grabbed a brace each as Liverpool thrashed Maribor 7-0 on Tuesday night to record their biggest away European win, and the biggest away win in Europe by any English club.
The victory has given Liverpool, who have only managed one win in their past five league games, the boost they needed.
And Salah urged his fellow Reds to take the sharpshooting they showed against the hapless Slovenian outfit into their Premier League matches.
“I think it’s an important result for us so we have to keep looking forward and we have to win the next games,” the Egyptian ace told Reuters.
“In the last three or four games we missed many chances and we had bad luck.
“I think that everyone has confidence that the good result is coming, so now we are in a good position and I’m sure in the next games it will be the same.”
As Salah said, Liverpool have an abundance of talent in attack, but at times this season have struggled to convert the many chances created into goals and victories. And he said that as well as the deluge of goals they scored the one thing they hope to carry from the Maribor match into the Premier League is confidence.
“The team did good and we had a good result so that’s the most important thing,” Salah added.
“I’m very happy for that — seven goals or eight goals (scored since he joined Liverpool) doesn’t change anything, but the most important thing for us is to concentrate on improving the results in the Premier League.
“We didn’t win for two, three games, so we need to carry on and keep looking forward and win the next games.”
Eighth-placed Liverpool travel to thirdplaced Tottenham on Sunday in a match that will test the title credentials of both sides. Liverpool and their boss Jurgen Klopp are under a lot of pressure to launch a concerted campaign at winning the elusive league title. Having dominated English football in the 1980s and 1970s — when they won 11 league titles from 1973-1990 — the Reds have hit hard times. Not only have they failed to claim a top-flight title since then, but they have rarely even challenged for the big prize, with the famous night in Istanbul in 2005 — when they shocked AC Milan to win the Champions League — masking a lot pain for expectant Liverpool fans.
Klopp (pictured) arrived two years ago amid a fanfare of hope with many claiming the German had the personality and managerial nous to take the Reds to Premier League glory.
While his infectious character has gone down well with the Anfield faithful, a few fed up fans are beginning to voice their disapproval of what they see as stagnation under his leadership. A dodgy defence has not helped, and that has been compounded by too many missed chances up front.
That was one of the reasons why Salah was brought by Klopp, to increase the firepower at Liverpool’s disposal. The 25-year-old has now scored eight goals in 13 appearances for Liverpool and more than that has excited fans and scared opposition defenders in equal measure.
His two goals in Egypt’s clash against the Congo last week — including the injury-time winner from the spot — sent his country through to next year’s World Cup and made him more of a national hero than he was already.
Not only that but former French star and all-time great Thierry Henry said Salah can go right to the top.
“For me, he (Salah) is special, he has something special. He will be a special player for Liverpool,” the former Arsenal and Barcelona star said at the weekend.
“I like the fact that he is direct — we don’t have a lot of players like that in the game anymore.
“And yes, people will say sometimes that he needs four opportunities to score a goal. When he is able to finish all the opportunities he has then he will be more than lethal for this club.”