Salah needs 4 things to become a world-class player

CAIRO – 17 July 2017: After Salah’s first match with Liverpool, Egypt Today decided to focus on four things that could make Salah a world-class player.

The following things could change Salah from being one of the top players in Europe to becoming a world-class player who European giants could look after: Salah’s character on the pitch, his personality, his defensive role and something that distinguishes him over the rest of his teammates.

Starting off with Salah’s character on the pitch, Salah needs to have a dominant role, meaning that he should be one of the players that dictate the game. If we have a look at Hazard at Chelsea or De Bruyne at Manchester City, we can see that these players dictate the game by increasing or decreasing the tempo of the game. Also, players look for them to give them the ball, because they know that they could produce a moment of magic. In Liverpool, Salah should look on playing that role, along with Coutinho.

Aside from his character on the pitch, Salah’s personality on the field should change a bit. Don’t get me wrong, Salah has a great personality; however, in the Premier League, a lot of mind games take place between the defenders and attackers. Rio Ferdinand, Manchester United’s defender, says in his book that Ian Wright, Arsenal’s striker, used to trash talk him, saying, “Look at you poor boy; I smell fear in you. You are nothing compared to me.” These types of words would make Ferdinand lose his confidence and cause him to be more prone to make mistakes. Salah should use the trash talk as a way to make the defenders lose focus in the game.

Salah should find something that distinguishes him among other Liverpool players. His pace used to make him stand out in AS Roma. Salah will need to improve his heading skills and strengthen his free kicks to become a complete player. Salah needs to be known as the player who has more than one tool to score a goal. The more versatile a player he is, the more pivotal he would be to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp. Having more than one strength would make it possible for Salah to score goals in very tight defensive matches.

Lastly, we heard Klopp talking about how Salah didn’t know how to defend in the last match. The thing is that Salah’s defensive role in AS Roma won’t be the same in Liverpool. Most Premier League coaches demand that the attacking wingers come back to help the left and right back in defense. This is something that requires a lot of stamina and pace. Egypt Today thinks that Salah has both and that Salah could obey Klopp’s defensive roles.