Gary Neville believes Liverpool “owe” Mohamed Salah to ensure they stay in the Premier League title race when they enter the Africa Cup of Nations against Egypt.
A Sky Sports pundit believes Liverpool have a “real chance” of winning the title again under Jurgen Klopp. Salah scored twice in Liverpool’s 4-2 win over Newcastle United at Anfield on Monday to take his side to three points. Neville said on his podcast after the game: “Before the game I worked with three world-class players at Liverpool: Alisson (Beker), (Virgil) van Dijk and Salah.
Van Dijk is back to his best form in the last two months, Liverpool’s defense is excellent, they kept a lot of clean sheets and Alisson is the best goalkeeper in the world.
And they have someone crunching the numbers. Consistent over a large area. Delivered annually. It is truly amazing. If you keep these three well, you will have a good chance, but if Salah misses a month, you will be hurt. When Jurgen Klopp first came to Liverpool, I loved watching them. They were really crazy, there was a lot of pressure and it happened so fast that sometimes you didn’t know what was going on. I’m not sure if the players on the field knew that. He lacked a bit of composure, but he was really interesting.
He (Klopp) called it Heavy Metal when he was at Dortmund (Borussia). Then it balanced out and on that strength they became a great team, took on Manchester City and won the Premier League and Champions League titles. “Now most of the players have left and we are in a difficult situation, a period of transition under Klopp, with the likes of Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz. It hasn’t been polished yet.
They are not at the peak of their career where they start making real decisions. “There’s a current that flows into it, but there’s also the frustration that the last third could be wrong. You might wonder what would have happened without Salah, but he still has to play in next month’s competition. “We are still ahead of the title race, still at the top of the league, so it could give Salah a chance to come back and push for the title.” Salah’s two goals against Newcastle came after injured Manchester City player Erling Haaland became the Premier League’s top scorer with 14 goals in the competition. Salah also assisted every goal against Newcastle.
This means he now has eight assists, level with Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins.Salah is likely to miss four Premier League games, the Carabao Cup semi-final and two FA Cup games at the AFCON, but Neville believes he could be crucial.
But with Klopp at Liverpool, he believes Liverpool can prevent City from winning an unprecedented fourth league title.”I didn’t think Liverpool would be in the title race and I still don’t think they will,” said Neville. “But they have a different manager who gets the best out of his players and demands more from them. They go and go and don’t stop. It’s everything you’d expect from a football team.
They have had bad moments under Jurgen Klopp over the last six or seven years, but for the most part they are a team that wears that shirt. There is something to be said for that.“I would say they have been given a real opportunity, mainly because of the manager. Knows how to manage theme execution.
They have something Arsenal and Villa don’t. City are now clear favourites, but Liverpool have a chance. “I wouldn’t say that and I don’t think Jurgen Kopp will say that when the season starts.”
