Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk believes Mohamed Salah is back to his best

Alam Khan - Reporter 09:46 16/12/2018
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  • Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk

    Virgil van Dijk believes ‘deadly’ Mohamed Salah is back to his best.

    And the Liverpool defender says people should focus on that, rather than the Egyptian frontman’s lack of celebration smiles.

    Salah has been under increased attention following the 43-goal exploits last season that saw him break records and draw comparisons with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

    But having struggled at the World Cup following the shoulder injury that ended his Champions League final early, Salah started the new campaign with indifferent displays and three goals in his first 11 games.

    A hat-trick against Bournemouth, and the winner over Napoli to send the Reds into the Champions League last 16, took his tally to 13, but the goal celebrations have been strangely muted.

    It has prompted speculation about his mood on Merseyside, but van Dijk said: “He’s scoring goals, he’s smiling. He can’t smile every second of the day but he’s enjoying it.

    “He’s scoring his goals, he’s working hard, like if you see him defensively [against Napoli]. So we don’t need to see any negative things about that [goal celebration], just need to focus on the good things.

    “He scored a hat-trick last game and scored again, an important one [against Napoli]. He’s been doing very well.

    “People can say he’s not scoring as many goals as last year, but that’s always the media.”

    Mohamed Salah.

    Mohamed Salah.

    And his midweek goal against Napoli was one to savour, a reminder of his brilliance, breezing past the £90 million-rated Kalidou Koulibaly before a cool finish.

    “It’s difficult to do that,” added Van Dijk. “People underestimate how strong he is and a very important player, great guy and is deadly in the box.”

    Liverpool will look to Salah to continue his streak against rivals Manchester United today, but also for Van Dijk to be a tower of strength once more given his side’s defensive problems.

    With Joe Gomez and Joel Matip sidelined, Dejan Lovren is expected to come in and the Netherlands captain feels there is no reason to adjust.

    “Why? I think we have been playing with Dejan as well a lot this season and I don’t think we want to change anything, just do the things that we have done almost all season,” he added. “It’s going to be a tough game. Man United are a good team, have good players up front. But we are a very good team all over and we will be ready.

    “Obviously we want to stay top, that’s normal, but it could change every week. City are fantastic, Chelsea are amazing and Arsenal are doing very well. We need to look at ourselves, perform every week and try to win every game and that’s what we are doing.

    “We have no influence on the other teams, no influence on City, Chelsea or Arsenal. We need to do our thing and that’s to win the games.”

    Van Dijk is desperate to be a winner, having justified his £75m move from Southampton last January.

    “I definitely feel I have made the right decision to come here,” he added. “But I already felt that in the summer when I had time to really think about my past six months.

    “We want to achieve big things, like everyone else on the league probably, but I want to achieve a lot of big things. I have a lot of dreams and hopefully I can reach those here.”

    Captain Jordan Henderson also believes now is the time for the Reds to lift their first top-flight title since 1990.

    “I feel we’re ready,” he said. “We definitely have the potential to win trophies. Having said that, it’s up to us to go and do it on the pitch. It’s an amazing group, who, hopefully can produce something special this season.”

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